Commit to Helping Widows Together

Carolyn Moor

The small book of Ruth buried in the Old Testament is a treasure when a widow finds it. It is a book, however small (it’s only 4 chapters), bout 3 widows.

I first studied this book with 2 other widows. Carolyn James wrote a book on this (The Gospel of Ruth), and she led us through this in 2000. It’s now 2013, and another friend, Sally Meredith, has written a manuscript on it and we are studying it with a neighborhood group of ladies of 15 or more.

If you are a widow, Ruth has news for you:

You matter.
God cares.
God, however absent he feels, is working on your behalf.

In this small book, emptiness becomes fullness, bitterness is replaced by joy, barrenness gives way to legacy and loneliness is dispelled by community.

Ruth however is only known for one short citation:

“Wherever you go, I will go;

wherever you lodge, I will lodge;

Your people shall be my people,

And your God, my God.

Where you die, I will die,

And there will I be buried.

The Lord do so to me, and more also,

If anything but death parts you and me.”

(Ruth 1:16,17)

This is usually recited at weddings, but it was said from one widow to another.

We need to learn from Ruth’s example to Naomi.

Let’s commit to help each other.