By Diana Kim

But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you, to turn back from following you! 
Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; 
your people shall be my people and your God my God.
-Ruth 1:16

I imagine that the journey from Moab back to Judah was quite different for Ruth than it was for Naomi. Both were vulnerable, grieving the loss of family and life as they knew it. Naomi was returning to her homeland after ten years, though she was without husband, children, financial stability, or physical protection. Ruth was going to a land quite foreign to her, a place she had never been as a stranger, the “other.”

In hindsight, I admire Naomi’s relationship with God. She knows that God is Almighty, so mighty that he can even take on her complaints and her bitterness. Having been so immersed in the faith, it would have been natural for Naomi to turn to God in all matters of life. But oh, to think of just how resentful she must have been towards God during that journey back to Judah!

Did Ruth also feel such resentment towards God? Could she even dare think so negatively of God? In her commitment to Naomi, Ruth just confessed her relationship with God. Perhaps she was instructed by Elimelech (her father-in-law) the ways of God’s people during their time together in Moab. Perhaps she accepted and worshiped God early on in her marriage as she joined this Israelite family. But I imagine that Ruth did not dare complain to God as Naomi did. There was more fear than there was resentment. There was more uncertainty than there was bitterness.

Naomi and Ruth journeyed the same path from Moab to Judah. Physically, they were in the same place. Perhaps they were in the same place emotionally as well, with their grief. But they were in very different places spiritually and mentally. 

When we confess Jesus as Lord, that doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing to me as it does to you. Depending on the day or the circumstances, the Lord Jesus can be experienced differently: yesterday, the Lord Jesus was a kindled fire of hope, whereas today, the Lord Jesus is a gentle touch of care. Our attention to different facets of God does not take away from the fact that we are still transfixed on God. When Ruth confessed that Naomi’s God was her God, I imagine that Ruth was not focusing on the facet of God that brought calamity upon Naomi’s family, but rather that she was focused on the facet of God of hope. Whatever facet each focused on, their destination was the “hesed” of God.

My husband’s grandmother just recently accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Though she was surrounded by family members and friends who encouraged her to believe for years, it took a nasty fall — followed by weeks of painful recovery and personal conversations and petitions with God — for her to accept Jesus. Some family members had commented on her stubbornness and refusal to believe sooner while others would say that grandma believed in her heart, even though she didn’t confess it outright. Grandma’s way to Jesus does not look like anyone else’s in the family. She was on a different path. But we are all arriving at the same destination.

Diana Kim is a PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary and is majoring in Christian Ethics. Her current research area of interest is Asian American feminist ethics. She is committed to teaching and equipping the next generation to be passionate for Jesus and to live out His passion and care for the world.