When Naomi decides to return to her homeland of Judah, she insists that her widowed daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, go back to their mothers’ houses. She spells out the reason. Naomi is too old to produce more sons who could later become husbands to Ruth and Orpah.

Though both women had wanted to stay with their mother-in-law, Orpah realizes the logic in Naomi’s warning and kisses Naomi goodbye. But Ruth chooses, in spite of the negative outlook, to cling to Naomi. She will not leave her mother-in-law or return to her mother’s house. Instead, she will belong to Naomi’s people and, best of all, embrace Naomi’s God—the God of Israel.

Like Ruth and Orpah, we too face difficult choices. In those moments, we are often tempted to give up on what we always believed about God’s goodness, mercy, love, and faithfulness. We are tempted to go back—at least in our minds—to think, Nothing good will come my way again, at least not as good as what I had before. There’s no hope. Maybe God doesn’t love me after all.

But from Ruth’s story we learn what to do when hard times hit: cling to God, who does not change whether times are good or bad. God is able to turn negative situations around, to turn our mourning into dancing, as David testifies in Psalm 30:11.

In the end, Ruth’s choice of the God of Israel is greatly rewarded. Ruth marries again, and she and Boaz produce Obed, one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ. (See Matthew 1:5.)