Day 24: Living In Community
Today’s Passage: Ruth 4:14-17
I grew up in a small town. One of the realities is that more than just your parents keep track of you. I can remember thinking, “I can’t get away with anything!”
Tight knit communities do more than keep track of each other’s kids. They experience the ups and downs of life together.
Later as an adult, I was a pastor in a small town and got to experience this all over again. It was interesting to note how people truly cared about their neighbors.
Today in these verses, we see how Naomi’s, Ruth’s, and Boaz’s obedience and trust in God brings joy to the community.
The joyful outcome of the story: the son born to Ruth who is also therefore born to Naomi in the family of Elimelech. The community’s response is prayer and thankfulness to God.
Naomi comes back to the center of the story. The women of the community proclaim the goodness and the providence of—Boaz? No. They proclaim the goodness of God! “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer.
We’ve come full circle.
She was greeted in Bethlehem by the women who saw her grief and heard her bitterness. They now share her joy.
We’ve seen the communal nature of this story before here. It is an important aspect of the story to note. The individual characters of the story—Naomi, Ruth and Boaz—have such strong roles that we might only read God’s hand upon these individuals.
The celebration of these unnamed saints reveals that through individuals, all of God’s people are taken up into His Story. They see the obedience and love of our three main characters, and they see God at work. Each member of the community, because they are celebrating as community, has their individual faith and trust in God strengthened.