Readings: Psalm 146:5-10; Ruth 1:6-18; 2 Peter 3:11-18
When I read the passage from the book of Ruth for today, I am reminded of how often this passage is equated to romantic love between a man and a women and read at Christian weddings. While the sentiment does hold, the relationship here is between two women. Two women who’d been bound together by necessity and then chose to be bound together into family.
But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. 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. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more. (Ruth 1:16-18)
The relationship it most reminds me of is my nearly 20 year friendship with my best friend. We met at a time in our lives where we were both bound by the necessity of sticking with our culture, upbringing, and the uncertainty of who we were and we who’d become. And we’ve remained friends…family really…by choice.
Her people are my people. My people are her people. And when there are no people, we are each other’s person.
So as I sit with advent thoughts of peace…even as my world feels tumultuous and unsettled, I know that there is peace and certainty in my friendship with her. When all is said and done, we are determined to travel with one another, and nothing more needs to be said.