Everybody needs to belong; to be accepted; and to have a place that is home.  We need that on the human relational level.  But more so, we need it on the spiritual level.  In a very real sense, apart from God’s grace, we are all spiritually homeless and bankrupt.

In the story of Ruth we discover a young widow who left her home country to travel with her mother-in-law back to Bethlehem. She came from a background of unbelief and hostility toward God, and yet she chose to believe.  Her faith played out in her faithfulness to mother-in-law.   Her words are classic. “Where you go I will go; where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16)

In that day and age, being a widow and an immigrant, Ruth had no prospects for a hopeful future.  She faced a future of poverty and potential homelessness.  The likelihood that she would ever find a place to belong and raise a family of her own was slim.  Her mother-in-law, Naomi, had lost everything and had little hope that her land and home would ever be restored.

Into the story steps Boaz – a man who had the position, the means and the compassion to change the whole situation for Ruth and Naomi.  He, it turned out, was their kinsman who could redeem Naomi’s property by paying the price and redeem Ruth’s life by taking her under his wing as his wife – giving her a new life, a place to belong, and a hope for the future.  Boaz gives us a picture of God’s grace.  He is a picture of God as our redeemer.

What does it mean to say God redeems us?  He buys us back out of slavery and sets us free.  He releases us from the chains of an old life.  He exchanges His life of goodness, holiness, beauty and love for our life of sin, brokenness, ugliness and conflict.  He transfers us out of a kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light.  He delivers us from a life that is less than God intended and rescues us from a future of hopelessness.  He converts us from a life worth nothing to a life as an heir to the King of the universe.  He takes us as His own, and puts us under the covering of His grace – accepted and brought into his family.  He restores us to a standing as His children with all the promises of life eternal, both in quality and duration.

God sees our worth as people created in his image.  He also sees how we are fallen from that ideal.  He sees in us a longing for home – a longing to be restored to the relationship for which we were made.  He sees our inability to get back home on our own.  He knows we are spiritually orphaned.  But He looks on us with love and He acts in grace, willing to pay the price to restore us to where we belong.  And indeed He has already paid the price and extends the offer of redemption to us.

There is a way back home.  There is a way out of an empty life devoid of hope.  God redeems our life and brings us home to a place of belonging and acceptance.  All a free gift of grace – but grace that cost him everything.

So, what was the cost of this redemption?  For Boaz to redeem Ruth it cost him the price of Naomi’s property and inheritance.  For God to redeem us, it cost him the life of His only Son, Jesus.  He is our Redeemer who gave his life to purchase our salvation, bring us back to God and restore us to the place where we belong as God’s children.