A person may leave their home to avoid suffering only to find they moved into a different form of suffering. Even if things do improve, can a person really go back to the way life was before?

“In the days when judges ruled,…” The book of Ruth set its story when the people were ruled by their own kin, in a ‘kin-dom,’ so to speak. There was no king nor kingdom in Israel yet. Even if the rulers are just, they will come across hard times because they can not control the climate, and when it changes for worse, then leaving kin behind may seem a smart way to survive. We know this story, of how Naomi found herself a stranger in a strange land, and when suffering came to her there, she decided to return to whatever kinship remained for her in the kin-dom back home.

What made that kin-dom in Bethlehem important to her were the traditions set for them by God’s law, and even though Naomi expected her life to remain a bitter existence, she decided life within that kin-dom was better than no life at all. Ruth, a Moabite, decided to follow her even if it would be only to die together. Ruth would become the stranger in the strange land. Yet this story will soon change, for in verse seventeen, we see Ruth’s name, which gives this story hope, “Your people will be my people and your God my God.” They sought in the kin-ship of Bethlehem the security of a people who embraced the goodness of God. Naomi knows these laws will ensure life, so she teaches Ruth so she can live as well.

God does not leave us in bitterness when we abide in a community that chooses mercy and rules itself justly. In most humbling walks, both Naomi and Ruth see bitterness leave as God brings both into new life—not their old lives restored, but new life based on faith in God. We know faith is hope even when we cannot see it. Naomi’s faith is in her Lord and the God-centered goodness of her community, and she teaches Ruth to act on faith. Their humble walk together among the people not only redeems both women, it restores their whole community. Their hope was unseeable to them in the beginning and may have seemed nearly impossible, yet we know in God all things are possible when we walk humbly within a God-centered community. Find your people and walk.