Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
When I try to picture what hope looks like, I see a young couple adopting a child in their desire to have a family. I see first responders and fire fighters answering emergency calls at all hours of the night in an effort to help someone in their time of need. I see doctors and nurses working in difficult conditions during a pandemic to ease a patient’s suffering. I see veterans of our armed forces fighting through injury and rehabilitation to recover what they have sacrificed for our freedom. I see athletes practicing countless hours each week in order to achieve their goals. I see moms and dads going to work every day to provide a life for their children.
Hope is something we are born with. As we grow, life gets sticky and our hope can get diluted by the stark realities of our day to day lives. We are left with a choice. Give up and just exist through the daily grind or choose hope. God wants us to choose hope.
In Jeremiah 29:11 God reminds us: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
The Book of Ruth is a great example of that promise from Jeremiah. When I look at the story of Ruth, I see a story of hope. Granted, at first site, one might see a story of famine, loss, death, grief, homelessness, and hunger. But the hope is there. Keep reading (the whole book is only 4 chapters). It is woven into the passages; the very fiber of Ruth’s life.
“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” As Ruth spoke those words to Naomi, hope was born. Hope for a new season and a new life. Hope for a future.
As Naomi and Ruth made their way back to Bethlehem from Moab, I can only imagine the mixed emotions they were dealing with. Naomi was going “home” after being away for 10 years. Her whole life had changed. She was now a widow and her two sons had also died. She had a daughter-in-law to help her, but she wasn’t sure if she would even have a home when she arrived. Life had been very hard for Naomi.
Ruth was moving away from a place she had lived her whole life; moving to foreign country. She had never been to Judah before and didn’t know what she would find when she arrived. She too was a widow. Young enough to remarry but going to a place where she would have no family connections that would make that possible. Ruth was facing many uncertainties, but she was committed to Naomi and God had plans for her future that she had not dreamed possible.
Hope is like that. It gives us the ability to face the impossible.
You’ve heard it said, “Life is hard, but God is good”. And because life is hard, we need more than ever to cling to the goodness of God. We need to remind ourselves that the God we serve is a God of hope.
The world in which we live thrives on the negative. Negative health news. Negative political news. Negative social news. Negative financial news. Negative business news. It surrounds us and makes it difficult for us walk in hope. But hope that comes from God can’t be quarantined. Remember Jeremiah 29:11? God wants to give us hope.
And now for the rest of the story….
Ruth’s story has a happy ending. She ends up picking grain in the field of a man named Boaz. She finds out he is a distant relative of Naomi’s. The introduction is made and the rest is history. A very important history. Boaz married Ruth and they had a son named Obed. Obed had a son named Jesse. Jesse had a son named David who became the King of Israel and is in the lineage of Jesus Christ.
Ruth’s hope for a different life led her to Bethlehem with Naomi and to a future that has literally changed the world. What could God do through us if we walked through life knowing that God is always in control and has our best interest at heart?
In John 16:33, Jesus tells the disciples “In this world you will have trouble”. He wanted them (and us) to know that trials and difficulty were going to be part of our lives: jobs would be lost, loved ones would die, there would be broken relationships, financial challenges, and pandemics would change the way we live. But if you read the whole verse, you’ll find that Jesus went on to encourage them (and us), sowing that seed of hope: “but take heart!, I have overcome the world”.
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