Today is International Woman’s Day.

The purpose of International Women’s Day is to remember women’s struggles to achieve equality in the last hundred years, and to recognize the achievements of women. Today it is observed by the United Nations and is a national holiday in many countries.

International Women’s Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history. One such woman in the Bible is Ruth—an ordinary woman who made history.

Ruth was the most unlikely of Bible heroines. She was from Moab, a longtime enemy of Israel. She had married an Israelite whose family had traveled from Bethlehem seeking relief from a famine. Years later, Ruth’s husband died, her sister-in-law’s husband had died, and her mother-in-law Naomi’s husband had died. The three widows were left to fend for themselves.

Naomi told her daughters-in-laws to stay in Moab and remarry, but she was going home. Ruth refused to leave Naomi. Ruth told her, “I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”

So Ruth and Naomi returned to Bethlehem. Ruth went to the fields to gather the leftover grain so she and Naomi could eat. The field belonged to Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s. Boaz, who had heard about Ruth’s great devotion to her mother-in-law, took the two women under his protection, and eventually married Ruth.

But the best part of the story is that Ruth and Boaz had a son named Obed. He later had a son named Jesse, whose son was David, King of Israel. And from David’s family line came the most important person of all—Jesus.

Ruth was an ordinary woman doing ordinary things, but God used her to make history. Her story became His story.

But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16).

To Do

Read Matthew 1:1–17 and check out Jesus’ family tree. Look carefully for where Ruth’s family is connected.

Also on this day . . .

Today is Middle Name Pride Day—tell someone your middle name and be proud!

1894—A dog license law was enacted in New York State. It was the first animal control law in the U.S.

1969—The Pontiac Firebird Trans Am was introduced.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.