I was watching Batman Beginsi the other night, and Alfred is often lost in the midst of all the drama and the fighting, and yet there he is, faithfully serving Bruce Wayne, day after day, dedicating himself to the success of another.
Naturally, when I read Ruth, I think of Batman.
Naomi fades into the background here, but in the midst of her despair, as she returns to her homeland since Moab has not been kind to her, she's thinking of the futures of Ruth and Orpah. She wishes the best for them, and releases them from whatever obligation they may have had towards her. It's not about her -- she is thinking of others.
It's the same thing Christ does on the cross. If he were thinking of himself, he would have climbed down off the cross and went on his way. Instead, he was thinking of you, and his love for you held him to the cross, so that you might live.
When we choose to selflessly serve, we may fade into the background. Perhaps we aren't the star of the show. But to choose to serve is to choose the way of Christ, to choose to think of another, as Naomi does in leaving Moab. It doesn't come naturally to us, and it looks different in each of our lives... but it is the wiser path, the one that echoes into eternity as heaven tells the stories of selfless love, over and over again.
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