A Story of Hope:  Part 3 of 4

May the Lord reward you for your deed. May you receive a rich reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you’ve come to seek refuge” (Ruth 2:12, CEB).

            Gregory House, M.D. once said, “People don’t get what they deserve. They get what they get.” True. Yet sometimes they get pleasantly more than they deserve. Such is the definition of favor, and favor is exactly what Ruby received.

            Ruby may have been a persona non-grata in the eyes of some. Yet to Bazil, Ruby was the spark God used to set his heart aflame. Bazil could not recall the last time he met someone as beautiful and kind as Ruby. Though as the years passed and his youth waned, Bazil’s hopes of falling in love faded. Yet love’s reach transcends both age and status.

            Some might accuse Ruby of being a gold digger. Bazil described Ruby as a life saver. Were it not for the risk Ruby took to cross over into a foreign land, Nomi would likely not have made it home. Nor would Bazil have met the mother of his future heirs. Of greater concern is that Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds may not have born witness to the arrival of the Messiah on that first Christmas Eve.

            If you haven’t figured it out by now, I have been recharacterizing the biblical story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz using imaginary names. Though the names are fictional the underlying message remains true. God used the courage of an immigrant and the compassion of a naturalized citizen to establish the lineage and person of Christ.

            Simply put, Jesus is the ancestor of a refugee. Our Savior’s forebears were of mixed descent. And though Ruth described herself as a foreigner, Boaz depicted her as a resident who had taken shelter beneath the wings of God’s people. What follows is a transcript of their conversation:

Then she bowed down, face to the ground, and replied to him, “How is it that I’ve found favor in your eyes, that you notice me? I’m an immigrant.” Boaz responded to her, “Everything that you did for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death has been reported fully to me: how you left behind your father, your mother, and the land of your birth, and came to a people you hadn’t known beforehand. May the Lord reward you for your deed. May you receive a rich reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you’ve come to seek refuge” (Ruth 2:10-12, CEB).

Clearly, God does not play favorites among His people. Nor is God limited by human boundaries. God advocates for the outsider as strongly as He does for those on the inside.

            Shouldn’t we do the same?