What the world needs now

"What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little ofÉNo, not just for some but for everyone."

Hal David's 1965 song lyrics express a need that all of us have, and I'd guess Ruth understood that need.

You remember the story of Ruth. She and her sister-in-law Orpah were Moabites (Jordanians today) who married men from Bethlehem. These two young women became widows when their Hebrew husbands died. When their mother-in-law Naomi, also a widow, urged them to stay in Moab to find new husbands, Ruth refused to leave her aging mother-in-law. Instead, Ruth took Naomi back to her people, culture and religion in Bethlehem.

As Ruth worked in the fields gathering food to feed Naomi and herself, she was befriended by Boaz, one of Naomi's relatives who owned the fields. Naomi realized that Boaz was helping them and encouraged Ruth to make herself available. In Ruth 3:9, Ruth proposed. Boaz, who was an honorable, older, single man, went to town the next day and asked Naomi's nearest kin if he wanted to marry the young widow. The kinsman refused, and Boaz married Ruth. (Everyone say, "I love romances with happy endings.")

The story doesn't end there, though. It gets even better. Boaz and Ruth had a son named Obed who was King David's grandfather (Matt. 1). Thus, Boaz and Ruth are ancestors of Israel's kings David and Solomon and the King of Kings Jesus Christ. So Ruth, the dark-skinned foreigner, and Boaz, the son of the harlot Rahab, were limbs in Jesus' family tree. You know, I'm glad that God loves dark-skinned foreigners and prostitutes and includes them in his family tree. It reminds me that God loves everyone of every color and culture, and he forgives all of us so we can get on with our lives.

When he was 15 years old, Beatles singer Paul McCartney wrote what would later be the hit-song lyrics "Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?" for his father's 64th birthday. In another month on June 18, McCartney will celebrate his own 64th birthday.

As Naomi wondered who'd need her or feed her in her old age, Ruth declared, "Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God." The Bible records, too, that "Naomi took the boy Obed, held him in her arms and cared for him." Naomi wasn't just fed; she was also needed!

Not only when we're 64, but throughout our lives, we human beings need love. We need some Ruths who understand that love requires sacrifice. One of the great lovers I'm privileged to know is Mama Pearl, who gives out more hugs and kisses than a Hershey's factory. Before she started attending my church and smooching on all of us, though, she smooched on other people's kids as a foster mother for over 100 children. She and cooked, cleaned, did laundry, disciplined, and all the other work it took to raise kids.

However, Ruth's love, Mama Pearl's love, and all our human love pales next to God's love for us. God is love, and he is constantly loving us. As Paul said (Rom.8:35,38,39), "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

God is love and he's "what the world needs nowÉNo, not just for some but for everyone."

June Seabaugh is a member of Christ Church of the Heartland in Cape Girardeau.