My pastor is currently in a series in the book of Ruth. I’ve always been struck by this book and how Ruth, a foreigner at the beginning of the story, figures into the lineage of Jesus. One of my favorite passages in the Bible comes from the first chapter in this book. Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, has decided to return to the land of Judah after the deaths of her husband and her two sons – one of which was Ruth’s husband. Naomi urged both her daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth and to return to their families, to their people, and to their gods. Orpah kissed Naomi goodbye, but Ruth chose differently.
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
(Ruth 1:16-18)
Did you see the conversion there? Ruth, a Moabite – one of a people who were foreigners and sometimes even enemies to the Israelites, invokes the name of the LORD to Naomi. “May the LORD do so to me…” She could’ve decided as her sister-in-law Orpah did, to pick the safe, comfortable, familiar course of action and return to what she knew. But she realized there was nothing for her there in her homeland. Ruth chose to step out on faith and go with Naomi.
And then we have Boaz. I hadn’t realized it before, but Boaz took considerable risk in wanting to help Ruth. My pastor explained it thusly. He asked if we’d ever had a person in our lives that it was a risk to take a chance on them. Now, at some level that holds true for everyone. Even couples like my parents who have been married for over fifty years had to take that initial risk. “Is this person going to hurt me? Will I be sorry for associating myself with this person?” I believe the majority of the time, the risk in making friends, in being in a relationship, in bringing someone into your business is the risk of the unknown. You simply don’t know them. Don’t know their character, don’t know their work ethic, don’t know their story. But sometimes, sometimes you do know. Sometimes a person’s past can preceed them. Sometimes I imagine medieval heralds running ahead of me, clamoring on bells and shouting at the top of their lungs all of my misdeeds. A leper in a leper-free world.
This was when I was struck squarely between the eyes. When my pastor was going through this illustration, my thoughts immediately gravitated to two people. My wife sitting next to me and a man for whom I do the majority of my contract work. Both of these people took a chance on me when they had absolutely no reason in the world to and every reason to point me to the door. How grateful I am that they see some sort of worth or value in me that frankly I don’t think I will ever see in myself. And how does that gratitude manifest itself? I wish I could say I strive (and succeed) to be the best husband, the best contractor/employee. But I want to be. At the end of each day I want to be able to say that I did my best to show them how grateful I am because they took a chance on me when the rest of the world (myself included) probably would not have. Some days, most days if I’m honest, I am not able to make this statement. But, again, I want to be.
And what about my Savior? My wife and my boss ran a risk, sure, but that was because there was an unknown at work. They didn’t know me (or at least not that well). “Who knows, maybe he really is what he says he is and it will work out.” There was a unknown potential at work. That can’t be said of Jesus. He who knew everything possible to know about me from the very foundation of the world – my rebelliousness, my failures, my deep descent into addiction and sin – He still came to this earth and died for me. For me. When I think about that, another verse from this morning’s journey into the book of Ruth hopefully exemplifies my response to my wife, my boss, and my God.
Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”
Ruth 2:10
Thank you to the risktakers… either omniscient or not-so-omniscient. I simply do not know – and probably will never know – what it is that you saw (or see) in me that is worth your love and your trust. Thank you for calling me as one of your own. Thank you for giving me everything when I absolutely had no assurance or confidence to give in return. It is my deepest desire to one day be worthy of you. I’m sure that will not happen while on this earth, but that’s ok, I read ahead… I know how this story ends.