There is a saying I love, related to our scripture in Ruth. It’s also related to the recent All Saints observances many churches held. “A person never truly dies as long as someone is still calling their name and telling their story.”

Historically, All Saints’ Day began as a commemoration of the martyrs who had died for their Christian faith. Over the years, it has evolved into a day when we honor and remember all the saints. 

Martin Luther held that all Christians are at the same time both sinner and saint. Sinners because of our sometimes rebellious nature. But also saints because of salvation in Jesus. 

On a practical level, All Saints Sunday is a day of remembering those who have passed. But it is also a day of remembering all those who are left behind as they have lost loved ones. 

We celebrate all who are among us, and we lift up especially those who have known grief and the brokenheartedness of life’s cruelest adjustment.

When we enter into relationships, at some point if the relationship lasts long enough or matures past some important point, we effectively make a vow to each other. 

As found in the bible’s book of Ruth, we make a vow to endure. We make a vow to treat each other lovingly. We make a vow to support one another as we have need. 

We may not have used actual words with this vow. We certainly don’t usually draw up a document about this vow. We are in an invisible covenant with one another, if we journey and love and share enough life with each other. A covenant that perhaps was never negotiated. Not even spoken of aloud. 

We feel for each other, and in moments like this we are obligated, and privileged, to lift one another up. We honor those who hurt. We remember those we have loved. We hold dear those who live on. 

Ruth. A remarkable love story, first between a mother and a daughter-in-law. Then, later on, there is a happy ending where Ruth enters into a new chapter of marriage and spouse hood. 

There are so many powerful lessons and outcomes we can glean from a story like this. First of all, let’s admit that we simply like a happy outcome. Not only is Naomi taken care of, but Ruth finds what appears to be new love. Certainly, at its most basic minimum she finds a new life of security, stability and fulfillment. 

The Midrash commentary also believes Ruth’s story has an inspiring lesson to teach. The Jewish commentator Zeira said of the book of Ruth, “This scroll, there is nothing in it about impurity and purity, about things permitted or not permitted. So why was it written? To teach you how great the reward is for performing deeds of faithful love.” 

Ruth will take care of Naomi, who many would have urged her to simply view as a weight that held her back. Boaz will take care of Ruth, who many would have pointed out that he had no obligation to simply because of being a kinsman. Relatives in the Old Testament system were under no obligation to stake a claim as Kinsman Redeemer.

Amy Plantinga Pauw has said, “Those who face death experience the living presence of God through the living presence of the community that cherishes and mourns them.” We are the feet, faces and hands of God for each other when we choose to be, and when others allow us and receive our love.  

I think what has always made me so sad about Naomi’s original offer to her now widowed daughters-in-law is this. By the way, one of those women did take her up on that offer. Ruth’s sister-in-law left Ruth and Naomi and went back home. 

But I think what truly makes me sad is that Naomi viewed that relationship with her daughters-in-law as transactional rather than as relational at that moment. Clearly, Ruth didn’t view the relationship in that same way. 

When we have loved deeply, we make our decisions a little differently. Sometimes, those commitments and decisions might not even make rational sense to others only looking on from the outside. 

In Christ Jesus, we have hope of eternal fellowship. We have hope of new chapters in God. When we have loved deeply, we are never left quite the same. On balance, I trust that the way we are left is far better than it would have been otherwise. For Ruth and Naomi, it certainly was.

DR. CHARLES QUALLS is senior pastor at Franklin Baptist Church. Contact him at 757-562-5135.