Blind?

The last 10 years of her life have not been kind to her. A rapid descent in fortunes, from being relatively well-off to having next to nothing. A father-in-law whom she loved and respected, a husband whom she adored, all gone. Dust to dust. And now, faced with a move to an alien country together with her mother-in-law, whose people would regard her as an outcast. But more than that, facing the prospect of dying childless, with no one to carry on her family name, to remember her by.

Her mother-in-law saw her consternation and urged her to stay behind. Why join in her bitterness? Why stay and continue to experience hardship one after another? Far better for her to stay back and try to look for another husband and rebuild her life.

"But Ruth replied, 'Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.' " Ruth 1:16

Amazing that even after 10 years of seeing how God dealt with her mother-in-law (Naomi), Ruth, who was not an Israelite, would say such a thing. Why associate herself so strongly with someone whose God seemed to bring nothing but misfortune? What caused her to stay on?