Can A Story In The Bible about a woman who lived thousands of years ago really be helpful to a woman of today? The book of Ruth helped me. I found it's not merely a story of a woman who was very devoted to her mother-in-law, forsaking homeland to go with her. Nor is it a tale of a mother-in-law who contrived to get her daughter-in-law married to a kinsman so he could provide for both of them.
The real significance of Ruth's story for me is summarized in Mary Baker Eddy's words "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance." The first Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 149-50.
As fond as they were of each other, the Israelite widow Naomi and her newly-widowed daughters-in-law could no longer remain together. Naomi was returning to her homeland. So, she told them to go back to their own families. With regret at the parting, Orpah went back to her family "and unto her gods." Ruth 1:15.
