Widow's Journal

The comfort a widow receives when she turns to the Lord, the God of all comfort, is a life-preserver in the middle of the storm of grieving. And that is how the next “portion” is retrieved: help. Like the Psalmist in Psalm 12 begins: Help, Lord, we can trust He hears us, and will act on our present need.

As the newcomers take stock of the town and opportunities, there are decisions to make about how to provide for their immediate needs. They need food, and Ruth asks Naomi’s permission to glean in the fields to source some of the ripened barley. The command from God in the Law was that when harvesting a field, the harvesters were to leave the edges of the fields untouched so that the poor could work to gather food for themselves. It was not a handout, but rather a way to help feed the less fortunate in a dignified way. I always think of widows I know who struggle with making ends meet with diminished resources. It’s nice when there can be an honoring way to help financially or to help with tasks beyond the widow’s ability. So, Naomi agrees that Ruth should venture out to glean in the barley fields. There is no coincidence that the field she enters to glean is owned by Boaz, a family member of her late father-in-law, Elimelech.

It’s an understatement to say that God had His hand on Ruth to provide help for her. When we seek out His help, we can turn to the Psalms to see how faithful God’s help is. Psalm 46:1 describes what an amazing source of assistance He is! “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” He is the widow’s place of safety, an arm of strength, and trustworthy help when there is a problem. Psalm 40: 17 reminds me “As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!” (ESV) When resources are limited, the Lord knows. He’s aware of our every need, even more than we are. He is taking note of each hurdle the widow will face and is and arranging and delivering the help. We might say, “Don’t delay!” but God is always on His Sovereign time. When we look back over the many ways and ponder the many times God has provided help in our hours of need, we can say with the Psalmist in Psalm 63:7, “You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy.”

The Providence of our Heavenly Father shines throughout this short account of the lives of Ruth and Naomi. Ruth likely hadn’t anticipated such a welcome as they received from the townsfolk. Many years and many life events have taken place. Sons were born, she became a widow, sons married, and sons died, as well. She was out of resources, out of her homeland, and so she went where there would possibly be help. Arriving at the outset of barley harvest, they saw there was the prospect of available food. Psalm 68:10 is an amazing reminder of God’s faithful help, “Father of the fatherless, and a protector of widows is God in His holy habitation.” (ESV) As widows, we don’t have to wonder if God will help us because the Almighty makes us His priority! The CSB version calls Him the Champion of widows!

It’s no mystery that widows in ancient days didn’t have a very high standing and might have been a burden to some. But it seems that for many widows today, life is still difficult. According to the Stand in the Gap for Widows website, 75% of widows say their church doesn’t have an organized widow’s program that intentionally cares for widows. Sadly, it goes on to quote, most widows live close to the poverty line. Across the US, they say there are 11 million widows, and every year sees that number increase by 700,000 new widows. Those are hard stats to reconcile with what God promises in His Word. The promise of “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” In Philippians 4:19, there is the secret of God supplying all our needs from His glorious riches. And of course, Romans 8:28 says that for those who love God, He will work all things out for our good. But the best is Romans 8: 38-39 where we read that nothing can separate us from God’s love: death, nor life, nor angels, rulers, things present, things to come, powers, heights, depths, nothing in creation “can separate us form the love of Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing. Nada. Zip. He loves us, and He will help us.

But for those of us who know who our fellow widows are, we need to make sure we contact them, pray for them, ask them over for a meal, call or text to check up on them. And if there’s not a widow’s group at your church, start one. Start one for ALL widows. We can glean some help for ourselves to make a difference for others.

As Ruth realizes the opportunity for food here in Bethlehem, she asks permission of Naomi if she will allow her to go out to seek fallen grain in someone’s field if they would allow her to look for what has been dropped or trampled. Even a small amount of barley could be ground up for bread. Naomi tells her to go ahead, so Ruth sets out to find a landowner willing to allow her, a foreigner in Judah, the opportunity to look for barley. She enters the field of a “worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.” (Ruth 2:1) And now the account begins to take an interesting turn. Who is this Boaz?

Next up, The Portion of Peace. After loss, it’s hard to imagine that we will find calm water again. Yet our Lord who calmed the sea with “Peace, be still” is still providing that peace that passes our understanding and guards our hearts.