Everyone loves a good love story, right? I was delighted to see that the story of Ruth was up for this weeks Bible lessons. I knew that my girls would love focusing on a female Bible hero for a change and that I could add some humor and fun to get the boys loving it also.
Today I had my students do some acting. I chose kids that I knew could play along with my summaried narration for the children. Unfortunately, due to a popular Korean song that has gone viral, the other daughter-in-law – Orpah – was often met with my students breaking out into song and wanting to start dancing “Gangnam style”. The poor dear. The girl who played Ruth did a fabulous job, cooking, cleaning and gleaning for her mother-in-law.
I think the part that sent the class into hysterics was when Ruth had to go to Boaz, following Naomi’s advice, and Boaz said that he would marry her. He then had to go to the town gate (be that the area near my desk) and chat with another student about who should look after Naomi and marry Ruth. The boy playing Boaz informed the other boy that he would need to marry Ruth to be the kin-redeemer. He was met with the reply “No, you can have it all and can marry Ruth.” The boy then insisted, “No, you marry Ruth” and there was a funny dispute between the two boys about who should marry her. During this, half of my class is literally rolling on the floor in laughter. If only I had the Ruth vegietales here we could also watch that and discuss other aspects of the story.
Honestly I admire Ruth’s loyalty. She went to Bethlehem, surrendered her life serving her mother-in-law and loving God knowing that road would be hard and the prospects of the future didn’t look good. But God is faithful and loving – He not only provided for Ruth’s needs He abundantly blessed her. Now we have her story of faith recorded in the Bible and the fact that she was part of he lineage of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
