Ideas of Ruth

I've always considered this story to be one of the more delightfully shocking ones in the Bible!

The book's theology has been frequently debated and discussed because God takes no obvious active role in the story. God never speaks directly, but is only referred to by the characters occasionally. No burning bushes here! How IS God active in the story? Or is God irrelevant? How DO the characters hear God?

I am particularly struck by the unconventional view of family (at least unconventional for Israel at the time). "Family" is not defined by kinship or even duty, but by choice. Ruth's choice of an adopted mother and a new husband are shockingly forthright. The reference to "uncovering Boaz's feet" can be interpreted as a sexual advance by Ruth (the lower parts were politely referred to as "feet"). How amazing that this young foreign woman would risk damaging her reputation and her security for the sake of choosing a new family for herself.

Many children and youth I teach come from painful family situations: death of a parent, abuse, separation, step families. Most have little choice in who is considered "family": their mom's new boyfriend, step-siblings, and so on. Some desperately need to choose family for themselves, i.e. safe and trustworthy role models in the community who can give a positive influence in their lives.

Some make surprising choices about whom to include in their family: an elderly neighbour they adopt as a "Gramma", a runaway who is welcomed into their friend's home, or a young teen asking to be placed with a foster family she has personally "chosen" -- one much healthier and stable than her biological family.

Those radical choices are reflections of God's choice. Amazingly, God chooses family beyond the bonds of blood and kin. God chooses US. Wow! How can we not make the same surprising, loving, radical choices when we name our own "family".