Lost and Found

New Life, New Love, New Hope

Happy July friends!! This month, I’m going to explore thoughts, musings, and insights that the Lord has (and is) revealing to me through my work with the book of Ruth. In these weekly essays, we will explore characters in this book and how their hearts yearn for God and ultimately embrace His beautiful plans for their lives.

I pray it will be an opportunity for all of us to take time to slowly let God reveal His still small voice to us as we sit with the goodness and wisdom He so desires to share with us. So, grab a cup of coffee and take a deep breath as we slow down and rest with Ruth. I’m so happy you are here!

This last week of July, we are wrapping up with a look at the end of the book of Ruth and how it can be a beginning point for us when our hearts feel fragile and lost. May it bless you, and may you be blessed also for journeying with me this month! I am so grateful for each of you!

---

Lost and found. A friend referenced this little phrase during a morning meeting today. As in, Ruth teaches us what it means to be lost and found. To find ourselves alone and afraid yet somehow comforted and consoled. To be broken and made whole.

We can all relate to this as children of God living in a fallen world. The word itself, fall, is often not used in a positive context.

He fell off a ladder.

She fell down the stairs.

I tripped and fell on the concrete.

But also:

He fell in love.

She fell into the arms of Jesus.

I fell deeper into the mystery of God.

Photo by Varun Gaba on Unsplash

Falling can be scary, because it knocks our sensibilities off balance. In different ways, our minds, bodies, or spirits can be ‘thrown’ into a disorienting direction, emotion or sense of unease. And when we lose this compass that keeps us upright and focused, we feel lost.

Ruth was lost. She was bereft, the scriptures tell us, because she had lost her husband.¹ Still, she had a clear path toward restoration and being ‘found.’ She simply needed to go home to her parent’s house. There, she would be safe, loved, cared for.

Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband. —Ruth 1: 8-9

She could grieve, heal, cry, and rest under the loving haven of her home. She could find a new husband to protect and care for her. This was the practical, safe, and best choice by all accounts. This is what her sister-in-law, Orpah, chose to do.

Photo by Magic Fan on Unsplash

But Ruth did not choose safety and security when she was free-falling. She chose sacrifice, abandoning everything to go with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to her homeland. In making this unbelievable choice, Ruth would ultimately find herself falling straight into the arms of her future husband, Boaz, who by God’s divine providence was her ‘kinsman redeemer’ — the one who was to protect, care for, and provide for her and Naomi.

The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz. Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘Blessed be he by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead! … this man is also a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin!’ —Ruth 2: 19-20

She would go on to give birth to a son, who would not only bless this little family by bringing new life, hope, joy, and peace into their lives, but into the lives of the whole world to come:

Photo by Adele Morris on Unsplash

she bore a son… they named him Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. —Ruth 4: 13,17

Yes, that David. The one who slayed the giant and gave us comforting psalms² and was a man after God’s own heart. The one who befriended Jonathan with compassion and humility.³ The one who would continue the lineage that ultimately led to Jesus Christ.

All because one woman was lost, and she decided to trust that God (a God she did not yet know!) was bigger than all her fear.

Lost and found.

Grief and grace.

Sorrow and redemption.

Ruth, matriarch of the Old Testament, pray for us.

For Prayer and Reflection

• Pray with Psalm 23 and/or 1 Samuel 18:1 and journal where God meets your heart in these verses.

1. Ruth 1:5

2. Psalm 23, for example

3. 1 Samuel 18:1