Ruth met her husband, Boaz, when she was gleaning the fields — that is going back over them & picking up any usable part of the crop that the harvester had missed. As farmers, we can relate to this activity. There is always more to be had, if one will only look more closely. She had relocated to Moah because of famine, so she knew the value of every seed & bit of grain.
She was a daughter-in-law of Naomi to whom she was always faithful. Earlier when Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem, Ruth showed her loyalty to both her mother-in-law & her faith in this passage:
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.
Ruth 1:16-17
It was here that she met Boaz, a match helped along by Naomi in true Jewish mother tradition. They had a son named Obed & eventually Ruth would become the great-grandmother of David, the king. She is also the ancestor of Joseph, husband of Mary & of Matthew.
Ruth is traditionally seen as a model of loving kindness. She always acts in ways that promote the happiness & well being of others, as we see when she accompanied Naomi back to Bethlehem.
