“Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.’” Ruth 1:16
In times of suffering, will you choose what is easy or what is right?
With the death of her husband, Ruth lost everything. In her context, being a widow was socially, economically, and (of course) emotionally devastating.
But rather than taking the easy road and choosing to go back to her own family’s home and former religion, Ruth goes with her mother-in-law Naomi to a foreign land, the land of Naomi’s people.
In Ruth's suffering, she chooses Naomi. She chooses God.
That must have been an agonizing choice! To leave her home forever, to go to a place where her outcast-status was guaranteed. But Ruth chose to go. She chose to be faithful to the God of her husband’s family. She made, amidst her incredible suffering, the right choice. And God blessed her for it!
Dear God, help us to be like Ruth. Help us to be faithful to You, even in the hard times. May we love You with our whole hearts, souls, and minds. Amen.