“Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.” – Ruth 3:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 31, 2015): Ruth 3

And so it ends. It seems like 2015 has just barely started and now it is already over. Tonight we close the book on the year that was. New Year’s Eve has always been a bittersweet moment for me. It stands on the doorstep of all of the possibilities of the New Year, and yet there is a note of finality in this day. After today, there will be no events that can be added to journal we have labelled 2015. All the people who have been born in the year, and all of the people that we have been forced to say goodbye to – tonight those lists get finalized. I am never satisfied with the things that I have been able to cram into a year, and 2015 is no different. And yet tomorrow begins a brand new year, and a brand new book that we get to fill with more events from our lives. And the new book will be filled with things, both good and bad, just like last year was.

Ruth is looking for a new beginning. The past has been hard, the current moment is filled with questions about the future, poverty and worry about how she and Naomi are going to survive. Naomi is not oblivious to the problem. And so Naomi encourages Ruth to make a bold move with Boaz. She sends her to the winnowing floor where she knows that Boaz will be spending the night guarding the grain.

We miss it because we do not understand the culture, but this moment is charged with sexual innuendo. This is definitely, at the very least, a Parental Guidance moment in the story. The idea of Ruth lying at the feet of Boaz and inviting him to throw the corner of his garment over her is a sexually charged moment. But ultimately, it is an invitation for Boaz to approach her with the intention of marriage. The moment is scandalous, but it also is filled with a deep purpose. Ruth needs a new start, both for herself as well as for Naomi; this mother-in-law who Ruth has grown to love. And so she very literally throws herself at the feet of Boaz – and does so in a way that would have energized the gossip lines of the day if anyone had known. In this moment, Ruth is vulnerable. She has no idea what it is that Boaz will do, she only knows that Boaz is the only hope that she can see for a future for herself and Naomi.

I have no idea what the New Year will bring. But my prayer is that this new book that we are beginning together will be filled with promise and hope. May God give you the things that you deserve in the New Year – and a few of the things that you don’t deserve as he measures out his grace on you. May 2016 be a year that God has shaped as we throw ourselves at his feet - and may we be oblivious to the scandal that that may cause.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ruth 4