Ruth 1

I asked my friend Kenn where we should go next and he suggested Ruth... so here we go. Ruth is only 4 chapters long, so I will be looking for another suggestion for newt Friday!

Ruth 1 is the story of Naomi and her family. They moved to the country of Moab, where her two sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Then tragedy struck. Her husband Elimelek dies, then both of her sons. Naomi has no family left in Moab except her two daughter in-laws.

Naomi decides to go back home to Judah and tells her daughters to go back to live with their families and find new husbands. Orpah goes but Ruth stays, and commits to spend the rest of her life with Naomi.

So they travel back to Judah, to the town of Bethlehem. When they return, the town saw Naomi and said "can this be Naomi?" She replies, "Call me Mara." Which means bitter.

Naomi was bitter because her husband and two sons died. She goes on to say that the Lord has brought her back empty.

I think we all have felt empty at points in our lives. Times when we lose something that we hold dear, times when we have no direction or purpose, or times when we are alone. Thomas Moore calls these times "the dark night of the soul."

The thing about being empty is that it is easy to lose hope that life will ever be full again; we begin to think we will be lonely, sad, and lacking purpose for the rest of our lives.

Ruth had a chance to get out, to go home and see her parents and look for a new husband. She must have been mourning the death of her husband, but she was still young enough that she could remarry and have children. But she stays with Naomi.

Sometimes, when life is at its darkest, the thing we need more anything is a friend. Someone to journey with us and to love us back to the light.

My parents have a picture hanging in a bathroom at their house, I have read the thing probably a thousand times, and to be honest think it's a little corny. It's a young girl holding a flower and it reads "A single rose can be my garden and a single friend can be my world."

One person can truly make all the difference in the world. Just one friend can save us from our dark night and bring us back to life.

Just like one person saved us from the darkness of sin and into the light of grace.