David, the Prequel

     Like many of you, I am sure, I have found myself saturated by the news and stories of this COVID19 pandemic that has taken over and transformed our world these last weeks. It has only been weeks, but the Coronavirus has turned our schedules, rituals, and most of our "normals" in life on its head: most people work and go to school at home, parties and weddings are canceled, dinners out at restaurants are the thing of the past, even how we make trips to the grocery store has changed. One of the places that has been changed is the normalcy of church. Our gatherings are remote--all online. It is being done well, sermons, devotionals and prayer sent out online. But even there the virus is front and center.  While I think our pastors are going a great job and I am genuinely grateful for the messages of hope and faith, I realized for the sake of my sanity, I need to read and think about stories that have nothing to do with COVID19 and our reactions to a pandemic.

     Once upon a time, I used to write a blog where I examined stories from the Bible. There is a Jewish literary tradition called a midrash. Rabbis would take the stories of scripture and either write commentary or write stories based on the people of scripture to, as it were, fill in between the lines and round out the stories of these interesting characters.  I did not really know and understand the word at the time I started my blog, but I realize now that what I did with my blog was to write biblical midrash.

     I decided to start by revisiting some of my blogs, rereading the stories and doing some more writing. I decided to start with the story of David the King. His story is long. One of the things that fascinates me about David's story is that in order to read the whole story you must read several books (And...don't worry, we aren't going to cover every word of all of these books) in the Old Testament:   1st and 2nd Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles, Psalms (of course) . . . and Ruth.

Hummm ~ Ruth? Ruth is the beginning of the David story. Ruth was David's great-grandmother: Ruth was married to a man named Boaz and . . .

Boaz the father of Obed,     [making Boaz David's great-grandfather]
Obed the father of Jesse,     [making Obed David's grandfather]
and Jesse the father of David.

(Ruth 4:21-22)

     I wonder how many of you have and know your great-grandparents? I don't. I didn't even get to know my grandparents. But, wonderful to me, my husband's mother IS a great-grandmother. She has 14 great-grandchildren. Just one of the lines (great-grandchild to great-grandmother) goes Lucy, my daughter's daughter; Beth, our daughter and Lucy's mother; Ed and I, Lucy's grandparents; and Lucille Meyer, my husband's mother and Lucy's great-grandmother. Lucy gets to have parents, grandparents and a great-grandparent. Lucille Meyer is in her 80's, but she still lives on her own, makes peanut brittle every Christmas, talks to us regularly on the phone (she lives in Oklahoma).  She came a few months ago for a visit to see her little 'name-sake' great-granddaughter. {since I originally wrote this blog, Lucille Meyer moved--to heaven.}

     Why do I mention this? Well, I think that in the same way Lucy will get to know her great-gramma, that David got to know Ruth, his great-grandmother. I suspect she may have held and rocked him. I think she may have told him her wonderful story. (Grandchildren love it  when grandparents tell them stories)  I think ~ and yes, I know that it cannot be proven as scripture does not say this ~ but I think that this woman was one of the influences of David's life. I think her story matters and clearly the writers of Ruth did too...the book of Ruth ends with the link from Boaz to David.

     And, besides ... Ruth is a great book! It is a charming, multi-layered love story. It is full of drama and poignancy, and sweetness. I love the story, I love the characters. If you have not read it ~ go ahead, do it now. It is a short, easy to read book. You can find it in the Old Testament tucked between Judges and 1 Samuel. You can probably read it with a cup of coffee and finish the book before you finish the coffee. And I bet you'll sit pondering Ruth, and Boaz and Naomi while you sip another cup or two.