The day started early for Ruth - as usual. At the crack of dawn she busily began preparing the morning meal.
“Good morning, Naomi,” she cheerfully greeted her mother-in-law when she entered the kitchen soon after Ruth. “Don’t you worry about a thing, Mother,” Ruth assured Naomi. “I’ll be in the fields until dinnertime, and then I’ll come home with plenty of food for dinner.”
“Bless you, my daughter,” Naomi thankfully replied.
All day long, Ruth labored in the grain fields, picking up what wasn’t gathered by the paid laborers. Israelite law at that time mandated, ‘“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands’” (Deut. 24:19). Although a foreigner, Ruth gathered alongside the native Israelites.
Ruth chose to leave her home, family, country, religion, and life as she knew it in order to serve her mother-in-law. Forsaking the false gods of her upbringing, Ruth chose to serve the One True God. Diligently, she spent her days working hard in a land not her own among a people not her own. She cheerfully gave of herself to do right. God never ignores such faithfulness.
One day the owner of the grain field, Boaz, briefly passed by the workers. “‘The LORD be with you!’” he said (Ruth 2:4).
As Boaz went on his way, he noticed a young woman who wasn’t quite like the others. “'Whose young woman is this?'” Boaz asked his foreman (Ruth 2:5).
“‘She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, “Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.” So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest’” (Ruth 2:6-7).
Boaz spoke to Ruth, “‘Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them...And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn’” (Ruth 2:8-9).
“Thank you, sir, but why have you taken notice of me?” Ruth asked.
“Boaz answered her, ‘All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!’” (Ruth 2:11-12). Ruth’s example of true beauty was seen by those around her in her devotion to her family and her humble obedience to God.
Whether other people think of us as beautiful or not, we should only be concerned about what God thinks of us. God saw a beautiful heart in Ruth, just as He saw in her descendant, Mary, centuries later. He knew that her heart was submitted to His will and looked for opportunities to serve others. It shouldn’t be any surprise that a servant’s heart is a beautiful heart in the sight of God. After all, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
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