“Come get the daughter worth 20 fields and all the hills of Judah.” Elimelech and his two sons came and made a cradle of their entwined arms and carried their sister out to the cart.
Milcah, sunlight shining on her oiled hair—Milcah kept her head bowed as if Bethlehem were expect- ing someone else. Surely it could not be she upon whom the village showered such affection. Surely the shy bride scarcely deserved it, that the women should walk the winding streets beside her cart, ululating a festival joy. Truth be told, Milcah was look- ing backward more than forward: to Naomi who filled her heart, and to Naomi’s precious family, and to the value the village had set upon her while she grew and matured, for the peasants were as ready to receive healings at her hands as from the hands of Naomi.
Oh, my friends, I am not worthy. But Elimelech took hold of the donkey that pulled the cart. His face blooming, he led both donkey and cart out into the streets, and so they were walking forward after all. Behind her was the dear house that had been her home. And ahead of her ... was an unfold- ing, uncertain future. What sort of man was this Levite? Her groom spoke in exotic accents, wonder- ful but strange. But he already had one wife in the lands of Ephraim. Milcah was to be the second wife. What would that mean? Nevertheless, she smiled and per-
mitted herself a glance at the people dancing around her. All around her was music and singing and jubila- tions, and this procession was on her account—and who was she? Why should she be given a day for herself alone? She was shy, was Milcah. Yet she began to feel a rising pleasure in her breast.
One cloud dampened the day, but not the bride’s happiness: the fool close behind, the father who had abused her when she was a child, the self-absorbed father who had neglected her coming up. He boo-hooed as if mourning the loss of his only child. (Ah, but he had received a generous treasure for the same.)
The women of Bethlehem were of two minds, for they celebrated Milcah and they mourned more purely their loss, for they loved the beautiful maiden about to leave them.
Goodbye, sweet Milcah. Good- bye, Milcah of the white hands, and go with God.
So the Levite and his new wife traveled north to the hills of Ephraim. They rode on two don-
keys, and a servant went with them to see to their needs.
No one, absolutely no one knew of the greater sorrow soon to befall them when Milcah would be raped, when Milcah would perish at the hands of the men of Benjamin, nor of the unholy wars that must follow. But today Naomi was smiling. It seemed to her appropriate that the almond trees had just begun to wake from their winter’s sleep, their leaf- less branches bursting into wedding- white flowers.
•••
There comes peace at the end of the novel, even as the book of Ruth initiates peace among the Israelites. Ruth is the great-grandmother of King David.
TheLutheranAd(April 12 issue)rev CMYK.pdf 1 4/23/12 3:46 PM
Even so may all our days find peace at the end.
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