In the ancient Middle East, in the Biblical era, a widow was on the bottom rung of the social ladder. If she had no children to carry on her husband’s line, she wasn’t even given a step on the ladder. “Less than”—such was the state of both Ruth and Naomi. Even though God gave us this story in the Bible, and its characters talk about Yahweh all the time. Oddly, the narrator only mentions His name twice, as bookends: when God returned rainfall to the land (chapter 1) and when He miraculously opened the womb of a barren woman (chapter 4).

The Biblical narrator also skips years of action and then delights us with detailed conversations at other times. I wanted the answer to so many questions.
– Why did Elimelek move his family to Moab?
– How did two penniless widows make the return trip safely?
– What is Ruth’s back-story?
– When did Ruth come to learn about and believe in the Hebrew God?
I used reseach and fiction to fill in these blanks while trying to stay true to the characters as shown throughout the Bible as a whole. Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz were unlikely heroes, ordinary people living out their lives as people of God, and He was always with them in good times and bad.

God’s fingerprints are all over this story, which is a microcosm of theme of the whole Bible:
God, in His love and grace, interacts in close relationship with men and women in the world in spite of our sin.

In the Book of Ruth, God reveals the interplay of God’s purpose and human decisions through:
Naomi’s tragedy and return to hope. Ruth’s loyal boldness. Boaz’s gernerous way of living out his faith.

I invite you to read the short story in the Bible—four chapters—given to us by God. Then read my amplified version, with historical, fictional add-ons. You may have a different picture in your head of each of these characters, and that is great. Your idea of Ruth’s fictional back-story may be totally different from mine as we are different people with different life experiences. Don’t hesitate to develop your own pictures that come from your own lives, because God’s stories are for all of us to take in, hold in our hearts and minds, and pass on to others.