God takes a risk on the most unlikely situations, hanging
the whole of human history on two homeless widows—
one old and past the age of children, the other a foreigner.
God moves in our lives as an unseen, unheard presence,
calling us to risk all just as God risks all.
The women’s risk pays off; they secure their futures
when Boaz takes Ruth as his wife. Boaz also takes a risk.
He joins himself to a woman who has already been married,
who is not of his country or brought up in his faith.
The people in the story—Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz—
venture into a risky relationship, but the birth of a son seems
to confirm the wisdom of taking a chance. As the village
women know, Obed is a sign of God’s blessing, one who
will restore Naomi’s life, keep her in her old age, and affirm
the precious worth of a daughter-in-law.
We know that this baby, born of an unlikely union, is
the ongoing link to another baby, one who would come from
the most unlikely union of all, that of God and humankind.
Through Obed, God builds the house of David, a house big
enough to include the outcast, the foreigner, the sinner, the
victim, the heartbroken: “And Salmon [was] the father of
Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and
Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David”
(Matt. 1:5-6).
It is risky business to entrust the salvation of the world
to the destitute and defenseless. It is risky business to leave
it all in the hands of women and children. But that is exactly
what God has done.
By Martha Highstreet from The Upper Room: 60 Days of Prayer for General Conference 2016