My friend, Gloria, called me this past Sunday afternoon. And though she speaks only a little English and I speak only a little Spanish, I was able to learn that she was in Colombia, South America, the place of her birth. She had gone home because her adult daughter, Lorena, was recovering from surgery in Bogota. Gloria hadn’t seen Lorena in 3 years.
Gloria is from Medellin—a city known for drug cartels, violence, and unemployment. Around 45% of Colombians live in poverty. Even so, Gloria recalls fondly her birth country as the land of “eternal spring”-- tropical climate, white sandy beaches, and beautiful flowers, including wild orchids.
Medellin isn’t anything like York, Pennsylvania, where she and I met a year ago September. No sandy beaches, wild orchids or eternal spring there. But in York, Gloria’s younger daughters Cami and Dani learned English, graduated high school and went on to college, something their mother had hoped for when she came to America 6 years ago.
Gloria says she has much to be thankful for. Cami graduates from Penn State with her bachelor’s on December 17. And all the family will be together at Christmas for the first time in years.
As I spoke with Gloria, I realized, once again, how grateful I am to have her for a friend. Friendship is truly a gift from God. But I didn’t count on friendship when I went through training to be an adult ESL tutor. I just wanted to help someone learn English and serve God with my gifts.
Gloria was passionate about her Catholic faith, so I bought her a Spanish/English Bible. To our mutual delight, our English lessons included Bible reading in both languages. We also had lessons about everyday things, such as clothing. I brought in half my wardrobe one day so she could learn scarf, blouse, pants, jeans, mittens, hat, coat, sweater and so on. We laughed as we read easy children’s picture books, such as “The Jacket I Wear in the Snow.” Even the word snow was new.
Soon she was trusting me with many details of her personal life. She called me her “grand teacher” and her pastor. During our entire time together, she was working with immigration lawyers to try and get her Green Card. She also lost her job. She found work at one factory, only to be fired on the first day because she couldn’t speak English well enough.
I remember her anger. Because, you see, she was very proud of how much English she had learned with me. She felt as if it was an insult to my teaching.
I felt as if I had let her down.
Months passed, and we spent more time together, but not just for formal lessons. She and her daughters came to our house for Thanksgiving. A week later, she returned to help me decorate our Christmas tree. She now knew words like “angel,” “present,” “stocking,” “tree” and “ornaments.” We made Christmas cookies together – something she had never done before. Her English and our friendship were growing stronger.
Gloria and I are very different people. She likes the city life, dancing and parties. I like the quiet and open space of the country, intimate dinner gatherings, and walking in a garden. But we have many things in common, including our love for our family and hope in Jesus Christ.
When Boaz meets Ruth, he notices she is different. And this wealthy farmer, who greets his workers with a blessing, reaches out to Ruth, going way beyond what the law of Moses requires for providing for “the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.” His motives are pure. He doesn’t ask for anything in return. When she asks him why he is kind to her—a stranger—he says it is because she has been good to her mother-in-law and because she has turned to the God of Israel for refuge. He allows himself to be an instrument of God’s peace and justice when he offers protection—telling her not to glean from any other field. Hasn’t he told the men on his fields not to touch her? He looks after her well-being. He tells her to drink from the water jars that the paid male laborers drink from! He invites her to eat with him, pours grain for her, and offers her oil and wine to dip it in. What I find most touching is when Boaz tells his workmen to give her more sheaves without being obvious about it, as if they had dropped to the ground by chance.
When I learned in July that I would be moving to Minnesota, I knew that it would be hardest to tell Gloria. I hated to see her so distressed. She had counted on me—her teacher, her pastor, her friend. And now I was leaving.
I tried to tell her that I would miss her. She stared at me blankly, tears streaming down. She did not know that phrase and I couldn’t explain it better. I said goodbye with an empty feeling inside. Why would God call me to a ministry of kindness to a stranger, only to separate us so soon after we became good friends? But I was sure that it was not by chance that Gloria and I met; just like Ruth did not just happen to be in Boaz’s field when Boaz showed up. Both relationships were in God’s plan and were for God’s purposes. God had brought Gloria and I together during her time of great need and my time of formation and preparation for parish ministry.
Ruth and Boaz eventually marry. Ruth was David’s great grandmother and is in the family tree of Jesus Christ.
The story of Boaz and Ruth confirms our calling as a people of faith to be kind to the strangers among us, the people God brings in and out of our lives in order to accomplish His purposes. What God desires is relationships, not just random acts of kindness. Giving money, clothing and food to people in need is important, but God requires even more. He asks us to care for the stranger as if they were our own kin.
In Christ, God is reconciling the world to Himself and human beings with each other. That means in Christ, loving relationships with all people are possible. In Christ, we are all known, understood, forgiven, and cherished, no matter the language we speak, the church in which we worship, and the place we call home.
It had been about a month since I had heard from Gloria when she called this past Sunday. We laughed together, still close despite the many miles between us. I told her we had some snow, and she joked that I needed to wear my bufanda—my scarf.
While saying goodbye, she asked me to wait as she asked Lorena for help with her English. She said to me then, “I miss you.”
I was so surprised, I couldn’t respond at first. So she said it again. Louder.
That simple phrase brought me such joy. It was as if God was reassuring me that He was still taking care of her. She would be OK… and so would I. And our friendship would continue on.
I answered, “I miss you too!” And added, “God be with you!”
I knew He already was.
Let us pray.
Dearest Lord, we give thanks with a grateful heart for the many blessings we have. Too often we ask for more; too little we give thanks for what we have. We are so blessed for having so much, for family, for friendships, for the many worldly things that you have loaned us, and for the food before us each day. Open our eyes to the strangers among us, Lord, the people you bring in and out of our lives to accomplish your purposes. Open our hearts to the needs and vulnerabilities of the stranger. Show us how to give of ourselves and form relationships with people who seem different from us. Teach us to love as you love, Lord, unconditionally, and forgive as you forgive, over and over again. We pray with thanksgiving, in Christ, knowing that what we request according to thy Will will be done. We pray as one people of faith. Amen.
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