Uncertain times: the story of Ruth
It feels as though we are going backwards. Any progress in reducing rates of infection has been reversed, with many areas going back into lockdown. Schools have sent some pupils home to self-isolate; meanwhile it is nearly impossible to get a test. I am waiting with indecision, unsure of what next week will bring. Will I get that phone call from school? Will Cardiff be next to lockdown? Should I stock up on essential items, thereby initiating panic-buying?
Having no control over a situation, not knowing what the future holds, being faced with unpredictability — all this leads to worry and anxiety. But we are by no means the only generation to pass through a time of uncertainty. For centuries, people have lived through war, plague and pestilence.
Around 3,000 years ago, an Israelite woman named Naomi emigrated with her family, because of the dreadful famine as crops failed due to drought. This terrifying situation where people literally starved, was to last another ten years. It must have been life-threatening enough to compel them to leave their home, family and friends, in order to take their chances in pagan Moab.
Naomi’s two sons marry local women, but they and her husband die, leaving her a widow without support in an alien land. Confronted by insecurity, Naomi decides to return home. Her Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth, insists on accompanying her, saying,
“Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” (Ruth 1: 16)
As both a widow and a foreigner, Ruth will have no status in this strange land. She will be penniless, relying on the charity of others. Facing deep uncertainty, Ruth makes an active choice to adopt her mother-in-law’s God. She would have seen her husband practice his religion, but it is not until she reaches this crossroads that Ruth places her own faith in the God of Israel.
Like us today, Ruth did not know what would happen. However, we can find inspiration in her willingness to look to an uncertain future with trust in God.
First written 19 September 2020
