The opening verses in this book set the scene for this story we’re embarking on. We learn of the macro-context - the dark days when Israel was ruled by the Judges, the harshness and desperation of a land caught up in a famine, the reality of opposing territories (Moab and Israel). The beauty in the book of Ruth is that it doesn’t stay in the macro - it’s not making a wider social commentary, we’re not dealing with entire nations, tribes or people groups here. We zoom right in. We learn of the micro-context - a small family’s complex situation, the reality of their lives and their history and their decisions. This is where our story begins - in the place of messiness and complexity, grief and suffering and hardship. The scene opens just as a complicated journey is beginning and so we too can ask the question, where is God in our complicated journeys? What would it look like to embrace the God who cares about the big and the little parts of our stories?