All in good time……

Sorry to have left you hanging over the weekend…….the suspense has been building, right?

We left Ruth in the hands of Boaz. He was about to decide her fate – and by association, the fate of Naomi, her mother-in-law.

Naomi’s ruse to get Ruth noticed by this eligible relative seems to have worked, so let’s return to the story and see how it pans out……

Boaz is keen on Ruth, that seems clear. He’s determined to do everything by the book though. He is a good man. He will not compromise her reputation. He’s going to do everything in the right order and in the right way.

So he goes to see the man who is more closely related to Ruth and has more of a right to decide her future. This man has first refusal, if you will. Boaz waits in a public place for him – at the town gate – and gathers ten of the town’s elders as witnesses to the conversation. He is being wise. He is planning carefully. However strong his attraction for Ruth is, he is acting coolly and calmly.

Here’s the deal: ‘Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.’

OK….

Here’s the catch: ‘On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.’

Not OK. This would really upset the family. This could really rock the boat.

The deal is sealed by the guardian-redeemer removing and giving Boaz his sandal (the method of legalizing transactions in Israel).

So Boaz gets the girl.

And the sandal.

He’s done it by the book. In front of witnesses.

Who give their blessing –

We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah,who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. Ruth 4:11-12

Which comes spectacularly true. As we shall see tomorrow.

Over the next few days, I have a few points to draw from this passage.

Anyone who’s ever fallen head over heels in love knows how wonderful that feeling is….that rush of emotion, the tingling sensations, the hijacking of all reason, the all-consuming preoccupation….you can’t eat, you can’t sleep, you can barely walk……

And you are certainly in no position to make lifelong decisions and commitments.

Or even to get that person’s name tattooed on your neck.

Everyday in the movies and soaps – and in our workplace and families too – lovestruck individuals rush headlong into relationships that feel so right and yet have devastating consequences.

How can something that feels so right be wrong?

Because those feelings fade. And then what are you left with?

A relationship that you have got so deep into you don’t know how to get out.

People you love all around you hurt and damaged by your impetuous momentary blindness.

Boaz takes his time and does it right. He doesn’t make rash promises he can’t keep. He doesn’t rush into a commitment he can’t deliver on.

Good on him, I say. It’s not the stuff of the movies, I know that, but it is the basis of a relationship which will stand the test of time.

And a little PS for those of us who have almost forgotten what it feels to love in that giddy, mind-altering way………..there are other decisions we take and commitments we make in the rush of emotion that could probably have benefited from more thought and less haste. I’m a bit that way at the moment. I suffer to some degree from Seasonal Affective Disorder and this time of year (roughly May every year) is the time I feel I can take on the whole world. I can do anything. I am full of energy and vitality and enthusiasm. I take on too much (because this week, I do have the mental and physical energy for it, but next week/month……). I know the theory and yet I still am blinded by my heightened emotions….it catches me out every year. I know I’m doing it right now – I said so to Andy last night…and yet I’m still doing it lol……fortunately, most of the ideas haven’t made it past discussion with Andy yet and are not carved in stone…..

But we are all susceptible to heightened emotions – anger makes us speak out words that cannot be taken back; excitement makes us blurt out a secret before time; enthusiasm makes us sign up to a financial commitment that is beyond our means; resentment makes us spread rumours to bring someone else down…..

And we all know the answer. Sleep on it. Wait a day. Do it right. Breathe.

Remember….