A Beautiful Love Story

While I was reading the news on boston.com yesterday, I found a list of the 20 most romantic movies of all time. My first thought was how difficult it would be to just pick 20. After reading the list, I got to thinking about what makes a truly great love story and why we fall for these stories every time.

As usual, my thought pattern led me to the Bible and specifically to the Book of Ruth. At the start of this month, the Pastor of my church decided that he was going to preach through this little gem of a book that is widely considered to be the Bible’s most-loved love story. The book itself is only four chapters long and is set during the time of the Judges. In stark contrast to Judges, the book of Ruth shows us a community that did what was right in God’s eyes during a time when most people were following their own sinful desires.

A peculiar charm attaches to the story making it especially attractive to the most casual reader. It is a love story of other days in which sorrow and joy, failure and devotedness, life and death, are intermingled, all leading to the much anticipated wedding day and the birth of an heir who ultimately ends up within the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The very setting of the story is restful to the spirit as we are carried away into pastoral scenes to find ourselves in company with harvesters and gleaners. Throughout the story we see God’s providential hand brining Ruth (the main character of the story) and Boaz (a field owner) together and blessing Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi in the process.

I have often wondered why Hollywood has never tried to capture this unbelievably moving story on the big screen. If they can take something as dark and sinister as vampires and create an epic love story that has teenagers flocking by the thousands, I have to believe they could create a modernized version of the Book of Ruth and have similar success.

Please comment and let me know your favorite Bible love story. You know mine. :-)