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Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

You may have heard these words read during a Christian wedding. They certainly describe the kind of commitment that God intends for marriage. But these words weren’t spoken between a bride and a groom.

A woman named Naomi, her husband, and her two sons had moved from Bethlehem in Israel to the nation of Moab when there was a famine in Israel. Naomi’s husband died there, and her sons married Moabite women. After about ten years, her sons died too. Grieving and with no one left to support her, she decided to go back to her homeland.

Naomi urged her two daughters-in-law to stay in Moab to start over with family nearby rather than move to a foreign land to start life over with her. But one of them, Ruth, refused. Instead, she spoke these words. She promised Naomi that she would go with her wherever she went; she would adopt her God and her culture; she would even die with her. What unexpected, faithful love for a woman in need!

Ruth’s faithful love reflected God’s faithful love that she came to know through Naomi and her family. God promised to leave behind the comforts of heaven to help us in our time of need. Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem as a descendant of Ruth, not only came to live with us. He made the ultimate sacrifice when he willingly died and was buried with us. But death wouldn’t separate us from him or his love. He came back to life to promise that our need for forgiveness, hope, and deliverance from death was fully met. He promises that he won’t leave us or turn back from us but will one day take us to live with him forever.

Knowing this faithful love of God moves us to show faithful and sacrificial love to those around us, just as Ruth showed to Naomi.

Lord, as you have loved me, move me to love others. Amen.

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.