Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Ruth 3:1-5
“One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered.”
In the time of Naomi and Ruth it would be appropriate for the mother-in-law to seek the welfare of her widowed daughter-in-law by finding her a new husband, what Naomi was referring to as “finding a home”. The problem is not that Ruth is weak or unintelligent, but that she has very few rights and resources at her disposal. There was no social safety net that provided food stamps or healthcare. She was on her own! But at the heart of Ruth’s story is the claim that even though we might not always see or understand what is happening we are never alone. God is with us and is making a plan for our rest and well-being. It might have been harder for Ruth to see, but we have been shown this clearly in our Savior, Jesus! We are never alone. We are always loved. And we have a faithful God who is working out His plan of salvation that it may be well with us.