Whither thou goest, I will go

“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”Ruth 1:16

Reflection

Ruth had every reason to leave. She was a widow, young, a foreigner, and her mother-in-law Naomi — also a widow, also bereaved, having lost her husband and both sons — insisted that she return to her land and start life over. It was the sensible advice: Naomi had nothing to offer, no future, no security. The other daughter-in-law accepted and went back. But Ruth made a choice that defied all logic of survival: she clung to Naomi and said the sentence that crossed the centuries — "whither thou goest, I will go".

Notice the kind of loyalty those words describe. It is not the easy loyalty of good days, when being together brings advantages. It is the loyalty that clings precisely when there is nothing left to gain — when the other person has only grief, poverty and uncertainty to offer. Ruth chose committed love over convenient love. And, without knowing it, that faithfulness to a bitter mother-in-law would place her in the lineage of King David and, many centuries later, of the Messiah Himself. Ruth, the foreigner, is in the genealogy of Jesus. God honors those who are faithful in the valley.

The deepest sentence is perhaps "thy God my God". Ruth was not merely choosing a person — she was choosing a God. She saw Naomi wounded, questioning, calling herself "bitter" (the very name Naomi asked to adopt was Mara, "bitterness"). And even so, the God of that broken woman was attractive enough for Ruth to leave everything for Him. Sometimes our faith, even shaken, even in the midst of pain, is the testimony that leads another person to God. Naomi was not at her best spiritual moment — and even so she pointed someone to the Lord.

This passage speaks to two hearts. To the one who has lost and starts over in a strange land, like Ruth: faithfulness in hard times is never wasted — God writes stories of redemption starting exactly where there seems to be no future. And to the one embittered like Naomi, thinking life is over: pay attention, because redemption may be walking beside you at this very moment, in the form of someone God placed near you. The story that began in grief and poverty ended with Naomi rocking a grandson in her arms (Ruth 4:16). The God of Ruth and Naomi still turns "Mara" into joy. Faithfulness and God, together, rewrite endings.

Bible text: King James Version (public domain).