Protecting wings
Katy Emslie-Smith
September 28, 2022
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Ruth 3: 1-13 (NRSVA)
1 Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, ‘My daughter, I need to seek some security for you, so that it may be well with you. 2 Now here is our kinsman Boaz, with whose young women you have been working. See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing-floor. 3 Now wash and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing-floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 When he lies down, observe the place where he lies; then, go and uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do.’ 5 She said to her, ‘All that you tell me I will do.’
6 So she went down to the threshing-floor and did just as her mother-in-law had instructed her. 7 When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and he was in a contented mood, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came quietly and uncovered his feet, and lay down. 8 At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and there, lying at his feet, was a woman! 9 He said, ‘Who are you?’ And she answered, ‘I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next-of-kin.’ 10 He said, ‘May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first; you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. 11 And now, my daughter, do not be afraid; I will do for you all that you ask, for all the assembly of my people know that you are a worthy woman. 12 But now, though it is true that I am a near kinsman, there is another kinsman more closely related than I. 13 Remain this night, and in the morning, if he will act as next-of-kin for you, good; let him do so. If he is not willing to act as next-of-kin for you, then, as the Lord lives, I will act as next-of-kin for you. Lie down until the morning.’
Old Ruth remembers.
RUTH:
“What was I thinking of that night?
Sometimes I wake now in the small hours and cringe to think of myself as that young woman. Did I really do what I did? How could I ever have thought that a man of standing such as Boaz would even look at me, a hated foreigner in his land, childless, widowed, no status at all. I had been gleaning his fields, the lowest of the low, scraping an existence from the left-overs of others. I was hungry, desperate, determined, and yes, I was brazen.
Naomi had spun me a tiny thread of hope that because Boaz was related to her, he might feel some sort of obligation towards our protection and the continuation of the line of his relative, Elimelech. Now at the time I didn’t fully understand the ways of Naomi’s people but I liked the way they were so proud of their heritage, keen to preserve a name, and I could see also there might be some welfare for the two of us widows in it. I began to see it as a way out of our blind alley. And so, following her instruction, I went to the threshing floor as dusk fell, weaved my way round the crowd of men, tired and replete after a working day, found Boaz in a corner, and in the dusty darkness uncovered his feet and lay down beside him. Naomi had told me that if I did this, without a word spoken, he would know that I was offering myself for marriage. Like I say, I blush to think of it.
I knew I looked good. I was fit and lean from the days of work and walking, and I had felt his eyes on me as I worked in the fields. I had brought my best clothes from Moab, packed away in a hurried thought of nostalgia, never thinking I would wear them again. I can still smell them now, musky wool, embroidered in rich colours, tasselled and hanging with metals discs which clinked as I walked. I felt home again as I put them on. Brings a lump to my throat to think of it even now.
I also knew this could go badly wrong. And yes I was nervous. And yet there was something about his ways that made me feel strangely safe. He was deeper, more authentic, kinder than the other men. When I should have been invisible to him, in the corner of a field, he had wished me blessing from his God, and he had spoken of this God who protects, who spreads his wings to provide a place of refuge for those who need it. Imagine how I felt when Boaz spread the corner of his cloak over me that night, in just the way that very way. When he called me daughter, my pulse raced, no longer foreign but accepted as kin. I had found safe refuge.
The years have been good to me. The kind ways of Boaz convinced me of the kindness of his God, now my God. Many barley harvests have come and gone, and I have been blessed with the bounty of the land and with children. I hold my grandson Jesse on my knee, with my old, arthritic hands. I think back over my life, a story of rescue and provision in deep need, and I wonder what Jesse’s life will be.”
PRAYER:
Father God, we thank you for the protecting wings that you spread over us. May we extend wings of safety and refuge in the same way to those who need it. Amen.
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