Ruth

I am a sap of epic proportion. It's the truth, and for whatever reason I'm a little bit embarrassed by this part of who I am. It's a little too girlish and vulnerable. But I've got to share this with you.

I've started to read the book of Ruth, it's in the Bible and I think its got to be one of the top ten best love stories ever. When I was a child I heard the story in Sunday School, but I missed the undercurrent. The Sunday School version skips the sexual tension, seduction, and match making by a manipulative mother-in-law. The Sunday School version leaves out the part where Boaz is rip-roaring drunk on his barn floor when Ruth, a dark skinned foreigner comes to him.

I could re-tell the story, and I might one day. But you should read it yourself. And better yet you should get the book by Francine Rivers called Ruth (its a novella) that brings this story to life and unravels some of the cultural things that we might miss.

The Sunday School version of the Bible is sort of the Disney Land version of real life. But when you read the real Bible you discover that its full of intrigue, and betrayal, and murder, and sex. Yep, there is a whole book of the Bible that is erotica - plain and simple. But interwoven into these stories of hurt and human pain is the golden cord of redemption. The Hope that there is a God who is in control, and who is good and wants to know and love me. It's there in the mess. Always there.

And the story of Ruth is no different. It's a story of two women at the margins of society who have lost everything, who have known bitterness and hunger, and been really, really vulnerable. But there in the mix is loyalty. And then there is the Kinsman Redeemer, Boaz. He's the good and powerful man who offers protection, provision. He's the one who falls for the foreigner and and makes the love story have a happy ending.

As a kid I never particularly cared for this story. But today I love it, because it is messy. Those 2 women, Ruth and Naomi, had endured loss. Boaz was rip-roaring drunk on the floor. And something beautiful and redemptive happened through the mess and the loss.

The best part is that it isn't a story about people who lived long ago. It is my story. It is yours. Jesus longs to be the hero, the lover, and redeemer in your story. He wants to make the crap I've endured, and the crap you've endured into a happily ever after. He can give meaning to loss, and a place of security and honor to those who have spent their lives on the margins. He is the best love story of all time.

Maybe the only one that really matters.