This care and protection is beautifully captured in the imagery of God's "wings." When Boaz first meets Ruth, he says:
"May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
Later, Ruth refers back to this imagery of God's protective wings when she asks Boaz to act as the family redeemer:
Boaz said, “Who are you?” And Ruth answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”
Boaz initially praises Ruth because she sought protection under the wings of Israel's God. And then Boaz becomes those very wings.
Why these stories are captured and shared with us becomes clear at the end of the book:
Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. He slept with her, and the Lord granted conception to her, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you without a family redeemer today. May his name become well known in Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. Indeed, your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became a mother to him. The neighbor women said, “A son has been born to Naomi,” and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
As I share in The Book of Love, Israel is "saved by difference." We're told these stories because Ruth is the great-grandmother of King David. Which also means that Ruth is a maternal ancestor of Jesus.
And if that's the ending of the book, here's how it begins:
In the days when the judges ruled...
If you know the book of Judges, you know it was a time of moral, social, and political chaos. Read, especially, the last few chapters of Judges. It's a real dumpster fire.
And yet, in the very midst of that disorder, God was working to redeem the mess. God uses Ruth, a powerless woman and outsider, to change the course of history.
Call it the Butterfly Effect of Love.
A small act of love, Ruth's promise to Naomi, ripples out and changes the world.
We are living with our own dumpster fires. We live in a time of moral, social, and political chaos. We're living in "days when the judges rule." Given this unfolding disaster, we can despair that we cannot grasp the levers of power to change the world. As much as we might want to, we are unable to take over the steering wheel of history.
And so, our daily and small efforts of fidelity and care can feel small and inconsequential. We feel like Ruth and Boaz: marginal and insignificant.
And yet, these are the very people, and these are the very acts, that God has used to save the world. And God is using you as well.
The Butterfly Effect of Love.
