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Just Plain Ruth

Copyright 2008. All rights reserved worldwide.

I am Ruth Megan Melinda Morgan. Everyone calls me Ruth, except for my dad. He calls me "Dimples" because when I smile I show my dimples, one in each cheek. Sometimes I get bored being just plain Ruth and pretend to be someone exciting, or even famous, instead.

On Monday, I read the story of Cinderella. In the front of the book it said it was a fairy tale. I know fairy tales are make-believe. After lunch I borrowed my sister Dorothy’s white graduation gown and dressed up like Cinderella. I put on the tiara that usually sits on my ballerina jewelry box. I snuck my sister Vicki’s white satin slippers and pretended they were glass. But my brother Ken said that I still looked like just plain Ruth.

On Tuesday, my dad told me the Russian folktale of how the bear got a short tail. I know that folktales are mostly made up with a thread of truth in them. I thought the bear must have been very cold as his long tail hung in the hole in the ice as he fished. I felt sorry for him when his long tail froze and broke off to become a short tail.

Before I got dressed for bed that night, I looked for a bear costume in the trunk in the attic. I found a big brown fur rug. I draped it over my head and shoulders and folded it over my legs as I sat cross legged on an ice blue sheet. I thought I must look like a bear but my brother Art said I looked like just plain Ruth, only sillier.

On Wednesday, my school teacher showed us the movie The Wizard of Oz. Of all the characters, I loved Dorothy with her dog, Toto, best. After all, she was the heroine. Just before supper, I dug my red sandals out of my closet and covered them with silver glitter glue. I put them on. I pulled my blue checked dress over my T-shirt and jeans. My sister Katie braided my plain brown hair into two long braids and pinned a huge blue bow on top of my head. I cradled our black Lab puppy Prince in a wicker basket I found on the back porch. During supper, I set the basket under my chair.

My family looked at me strangely but no one said anything to me as they passed the food around. Finally I asked them who I looked like. “Like you,” my younger sister Rose said. So I guess I still looked like just plain Ruth.

On Thursday, my brother Victor drove me to my friend Esther’s house for a pajama party. Since Friday was a professional day, we could sleep in. So we stayed up late and watched the movie, Anne of Green Gables. My favorite part was where Anne broke her slate over Gilbert’s head.

Now, that type of behavior is not part of my sweet nature, but I can pretend. I excused myself from the group of girls as they were rolling out their sleeping bags. In the kitchen I found a brown clipboard with a pen dangling from it. I braided my hair the best I could and then carefully dusted my tresses with the red blush powder I found in the bathroom. Quietly I stole back into the family room as the girls were about to turn off the lights. They took one look at me and laughed.

“What are you up to Ruth?” Esther asked. That made me mad. Couldn’t she see that I was Anne? I threw the clipboard across the room and it crashed against the sofa. It didn’t even break. I crawled into my sleeping bag as the lights went off. I mumbled, “Sorry! I kind of have a problem.” I was lucky to have good understanding friends that liked me even though I was plain Ruth.

On Friday, since there was no school, my sisters and I drove downtown to see the play, The Miracle Worker. I was fascinated by Helen Keller who was blind and deaf. Because she couldn't understand the world around her, Helen was wild and unruly. Her teacher, Anne Sullivan, spelled words into her hand. I was thrilled when Helen finally understood the word “water” and a lot of words fell into place for her too. Helen could finally communicate with Miss Sullivan.

I thought it would be exciting to be blind and deaf Helen Keller for just a day. After supper, I rambled around our big dining room with my eyes closed, bumping into furniture. When my sister Katie asked me to help with the dishes, I ignored her. I even ignored my dad when he asked me to bring his coffee into the library. After all, I was blind and deaf.

Then I heard a crash and a bang and felt something like dirt falling on my hands. I opened my eyes wide just in time to see my mom’s aloe plant crash to the floor. I apologized and promised my mom I'd buy her a new plant.

I swept up the mess and went to bed early. What was the use trying to be someone else? I was still just plain Ruth.

But I wasn't ready to give up yet...

On Saturday while I was dusting and my mom was sitting in the Lazy Boy knitting, she told me about a nun called Mother Teresa. I marveled that just one person could make such a difference. Mother Teresa helped the very poor people in Calcutta, India - the people no one else took the time nor spent the money to help. She loved and cared for the poor, sick, orphaned and dying. She founded a charity which operated in 123 countries, setting up hospices for people with Aids, leprosy and tuberculosis. She set up soup kitchens, orphanages and schools. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.ould never do what Mother Teresa had done. I didn’t know any very poor people or people who were dying because they didn’t have any medicine. The best way I knew how to imitate her was to break my piggy bank open and put all my savings in the offering in Sunday school the next day. I felt a bit better when my teacher told us that all the offering that Sunday was going to help a missionary in India.

Then my teacher told us a Bible story of a woman named Ruth. I knew that all the stories in the Bible are true so I listened very carefully. My teacher said a long time ago in the city of Bethlehem there lived a man named Elimelech. One day he met a beautiful woman named Naomi and asked her to marry him. She thought he was the most kind and handsome man she had ever seen. She also knew that he loved and served God so she agreed to marry him.

Naomi and Elimelech had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. Soon this little family had to move away from Bethlehem because there was a famine in their country. They moved to Moab. After awhile the father, Elimelech, died. The boys grew up and got married. One of the boys married Orpah and the other married Ruth.

Naomi heard from her friends in Bethlehem that the famine was over and now the crops were doing well. She decided to go back to her own country. Both of her daughter-in-laws, Orpah and Ruth, went with her... at the beginning.

After they had traveled awhile Naomi said to them, “It’s better if you go back to your families.”

Orpah gave Naomi a big hug and went back home, but Ruth said to Naomi, “I am going to go with you and never leave you. Your God is my God.” Soon they arrived in Bethlehem.

In Bethlehem, Ruth took care of Naomi. Each day Ruth went out to the fields and gathered barley and wheat for their food. The man in whose field she worked was Boaz. Boaz noticed how hard Ruth worked. He heard from his workers that she was taking care of her mother-in-law. Everyone told him how noble she was.

Here's the really exciting part.

Boaz asked Ruth to marry him and they had a son named Obed. When Obed grew up he had a son named Jesse, and Jesse had a son named David. David grew up to be King of Israel, which was very special.

But, more special than that was that Jesus was born out of his family line. So Ruth, the Moabitess, became one of the great, great, great, (and many more greats) grandmother of Jesus and all because she chose to serve God and was kind and generous to Naomi.

After Sunday lunch with my family, I sat in our flower garden on my favorite big rock under a huge poplar tree. I watched my older sister Clara pushing my youngest sister, Irene, on the swing.

Then I thought about Ruth from Moab. I admired her for giving up the life she could have had at home with her family and friends but choosing to be loyal to Naomi instead. I think Ruth wanted to be with people that chose God’s way and worshipped Him, since the people of Moab didn’t. God honored Ruth for that and brought her into Jesus’ lineage.

A light breeze blew through the garden. The leaves of the poplar tree rustled overhead. The bees and butterflies mingled among the chrysanthemums. It felt good to be in the garden. All was right in my world. I had discovered someone who shared my name and who I really could be like.

I like being Ruth.

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