The luxury of choice
A friend became aware of the beginnings of depression when she broke down in a supermarket, overwhelmed by so much choice. Choice is stressful, often leaving us with a sense that we have sold ourselves short. Wearied by being asked to choose, we may not care how much money we may be losing but simply buy what we want.
And what a luxury that is - so much choice, and if we don't bother about a couple of pence off a different tin of baked beans, it doesn't matter. Catch ourselves saying how wonderful it would be not to have to make choices, and we betray the fact that we have never in recent memory been really poor.
Ruth and Naomi were poor. They had arrived in Bethlehem on their own, widows with no children. It seems that they had somewhere to live. It also seems that there were neighbours who remembered Naomi and their encounters suggest that in this small agricultural village they would be included in the kindnesses of everyday life. They needed to find food; the barley harvest had started, so Ruth goes out to glean for barley. No choices there!
The Old Testament law had said: 'When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God' (Leviticus 19:9-10).
It seems unlikely that ordinary people knew the details of the law at that time, or bothered to keep them if they did. Ruth could have landed up in the field of some miserly farmer who would set his dogs on her; she could have found herself threatened by over-friendly reapers. But as it happened she found Boaz.
The Lord had protected her and was leading her on to fulfilment and happiness. But he used the open-handed generosity of Boaz and his workers. So when you shop, choose wisely, live simply, and give away all the 'gleanings' of your wealth to the poor and the alien.
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