While Good News is putting her boots on...

“While good news is putting her boots on, bad news is already down the road.”  I’m afraid this old saying still rings true.  We just can’t wait to pass on a juicy bit of gossip and what my Mom calls facebook is sadly à propos:  “the porte-patchet,” which means “the gossip-column.”  I wonder, is that how you use facebook?  Doesn’t good news deserve a hearing?  In the book of Ruth, the sweet fruit of the Spirit-goodness- still counts!

It was around 1250 B.C. when Ruth, the Moabitess, went to draw water for her and her mother-in-law, Naomi, at the well in Bethlehem.  I can almost hear the other women: 

“There’s that woman from Moab!” 

“How dare she come to our land?  She is our enemy!”

“Her husband was Naomi’s son, and he died. She cursed the entire family!”

“She’s barren- it’s because God judged her!”

Ah, but there was someone who offered Ruth life-giving water and his name was Boaz.   Later on, out in the field where Ruth was gleaning, he said to her:

“When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw.”  

(Ruth 2:9)

Oh, the goodness of this man, Boaz!  He need not have offered Ruth water- she was, after all, a foreigner and far worse, someone from a land where their enemies dwelt.  He knew her history- it had been reported to him.  But he gleaned the wonderful parts of her story- she had honoured her mother-in-law, left her own mother and father and her country, and had come to a people whom she did not know.  Boaz knew she had left all behind to stay with Naomi and follow Naomi’s God, the God of Israel. 

He didn’t tell her to go back to town and fetch water for herself at the well, nor did he tell her to go and fetch water for the others; he told her to drink, and to drink the water drawn by his own servants.  What dignity Boaz bestowed on Ruth that day!  Such goodness he showed this young widow, who knew only one person in the entire country, namely Naomi. 

Goodness means you don’t just offer help; give a date, a time, a suggestion and follow through.

Goodness means you put yourself out to meet someone’s need.

Goodness means you humble yourself before God, remembering that you are a sinner saved by grace, and you do the unimaginable: tell a prostitute that God deeply cares about them, bring food to a home where conditions are less-than-ideal, put an ad in your local newspaper saying you are available to mow a senior’s lawn for free, take a Bible to someone in prison, sit with a drunkard or an addict while they go through the horrors of withdrawal or…

Boaz was a Kinsman-Redeemer for Naomi and Ruth; a close relative whose role was to care for these two widows.  He could have chosen not to do so; not to demonstrate goodness towards them.  Unbeknownst to him, he was pointing to someone far greater than himself, when he offered water to Ruth.  He was pointing to Jesus Christ, the epitome of goodness,  and the ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer who gave up His life; so that we might have a well of water springing up to eternal life,(John 4:14).   

Ah, may Paul’s words to the church at Rome be true of us today:

"I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness,

                     filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another."               

(Romans 15:14)