Today’s Scripture Reading (December
29, 2015): Ruth 1
In the
closing moments of the Frank Capra Christmas Classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” (a
movie that Capra never considered to be a Christmas movie until it was revived
for television in the 1970’s), the angel Clarence Odbody leaves a copy of Mark
Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” for George Bailey to find. Inside the
book George finds this inscription –
"Dear
George: Remember no man is a failure who has friends.
P.S. Thanks for
the wings!
Love,
Clarence."
The
inscription is central to the movie’s theme. While George Bailey had begun to
see the world in terms of profit and loss, Clarence needed to switch the focus
from material wealth to the difference that George had made among the people with
whom he had relationship. George Bailey had somehow lost the human connection,
he had forgotten what was really important in life – human relationships.
(Interestingly, this theme of the importance of people and the secondary nature
of material wealth in the years soon after the release of the movie was thought
by some to be anti-banker and part of a communist plot to infiltrate North
America – proving the movies assumption that in a world where we are defined by
material wealth, friendship is an overlooked commodity.) But it turns out the
George’s friends would gladly give to George Bailey whatever it was that they
held in their possession. Friendship is essential to life – and that was the
lesson that George Bailey had to learn.
Maybe it is
just the Christmas Season, but it is this lesson that begins to shine through
in the opening words of the story of Ruth. There is absolutely no doubt that
Naomi has lost much – and there is absolutely nothing that can replace the loss
of her husband and both of her sons. But while she complains that she left
Israel full and now is returning empty; that also is not quite true. It is
obvious that she has made an incredible impact on her daughters-in-law. And
while Orpah reluctantly agrees to return to her home, Ruth refuses. Wherever it
is that Naomi goes, Ruth is bound to go. And (spoiler alert) Ruth is determined
to do whatever she can to restore the sense of family that Naomi has lost – to once
again fill the emptiness that Naomi feels as the story opens.
But none of
this will be accomplished outside of the hand of God. It is interesting that
while Naomi has no problem laying the blame for all that has happened at the
feet of her God (The Lord has afflicted me), her solution
is not to run away from God, but rather to return to him and to draw closer to
him. And because of the woman that she is, she bring young Ruth with her and
introduces her to the God that has afflicted her – revealing that Naomi believed
strongly that a return to God was the only real solution to the emptiness that
she has experienced in her life.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ruth 2
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