Are there people you seek to provide security for? Do you seek security for your children? Do you seek to provide security for your elderly parents? Do you seek to protect your spouse? Do you and your friends look out for one another? How do you go about protecting them?
Many of us are what I call Paladin’s. A paladin was any one of the twelve knights who attended Charlemagne. In today’s vernacular, they are defined as someone who is an advocate or defender of a noble cause. Protecting people we care about is a noble cause.
We might consider Naomi a paladin. She wanted to protect and provide for Ruth’s future. She did not want Ruth to be left to fend for herself. After all, at that time, if a woman was not married, she often had no way to provide for herself. Women were not typically allowed to learn a trade. Therefore, women who had no husband generally had to resort to begging or prostitution. Naomi did not want that for Ruth.
As we seek to protect those we care about, we do so with love, just as Naomi loved Ruth. We seek to provide them with a future of possibility and promise. We look for opportunities to provide the protection for them that we believe they need. Naomi did the same, even if a little different than we might do today.
Just as Naomi sent Ruth to a relative who could provide a future for her, we might send a friend to a company who is hiring. We might also send a child to a grandparent for assistance or advice. Regardless of what we do, we do it with love that seeks the best for those we care about.
I pray we all seek to be a paladin. I pray we advocate and defend a noble cause. I pray each one of us seek to protect the people we love and provide them with possibility and promise for their future. Advocate for a noble cause. Defend a noble cause. Be a paladin. Protect those you love.
Ruth 3:1 Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, I need to seek some security for you, so that it may be well with you.”
Marty Pressey 