Choose Life
The book of Ruth is an incredible story about a woman who is thrust into dire circumstances and comes face-toface with famine and death. It begins, not with Ruth, but with Naomi. It is Naomi’s family who faces famine in the land of Israel and travels to Moab. It is Naomi who loses her husband and later her two sons. It is Naomi who changes her name to Mara, which means bitter. Who can blame her? She has lost everything. Her life has been turned upside down. She has nothing left to live for. She is consumed with grief.
Why then is this book called Ruth? Who is she?
Ruth is a Moabite woman who happened to marry one of Naomi’s sons. She is now a widow after her brief marriage came to an end when her husband died. When Naomi decides to return to Israel, she encourages Ruth to stay in Moab and find another husband, but Ruth refuses to do so. The Bible says Ruth clung to Naomi. She would not leave her. More than this, she vowed to always be by her side. We do not know why Ruth did this. All we know is that she did. Ruth refused to allow Naomi to grieve alone and to travel alone. When Naomi was at her lowest, Ruth refused to leave her side. She sacrificed her future to be present with her mother-in-law.
Most people think of Ruth as a love story, and it is, but it is also more than this. At its core, Ruth is a book about life and death. It begins with famine and the deaths of Naomi’s husband and two sons. Naomi is left all alone. She has no heir. Not only is she surrounded by death, but it seems this is the death of the family as well. There will be no ancestor to carry on the family name. There will be no one to provide for Naomi in her old age. She has nothing left, and so she grows bitter and is likely content with dying herself.
Ruth refuses to let Naomi die. She clings. She vows. She goes out into the fields to glean. Ruth is a fighter. Ruth chooses life.
Death is a formidable enemy. We live in a world overrun with the ways of death. Greed, envy, hatred, jealousy, strife, pride, and things like them rob us of life. Netflix steals our time. Social media takes away our happiness. Political pundits fill us with fear. It is easy to give in. It is easy to grow bitter.
And then, we encounter Ruth, or we encounter the Gospels, or we encounter some other word from the Lord, and we are reminded there is a better way to live. Don’t give in. Don’t grow bitter. Choose life! Wake up every day, and choose life. Fight against the ways of death. Walk in the ways of life. Choose joy, peace, love, truth, forgiveness, mercy, and things like these. Be like Ruth and choose to live differently in a dying world.