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“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”
Matthew 6:25 (ESV)

When studying Keats in high school English class, the image of Ruth, a widow standing in tears amid alien corn, didn’t really register with me.

Perhaps the self-same song that found a path

Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,

She stood in tears amid the alien corn.

from ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ by John Keats

But wow, doesn’t John Keats’ nineteenth-century poem strike a chord with how it feels to be in this season of loss? I imagine Ruth in a foreign land standing in the field gathering crumbs after the field hands had their share, looking for scraps just to keep her mother-in-law and her sustained. No plan at all for the future.

Many painters using brushes have captured the truth of Ruth’s pain the moment she stood in fields of alien corn.

I’m sharing two of these here. They each depict Ruth in the fields so humbly accepting her circumstance. She seems to relax her shoulders as if to say “God’s got this”. Gleaning the fields is all she can do. Oh, but the tears. The grief.

Is that how you feel? I know I’ve felt that way many times.

But while the paintings help you connect with the pain Ruth was in, the written word through poetry can go deeper and explain the hope and peace that accompanied Ruth during that time.

Keats does this in his poem by placing a nightingale there with Ruth. He imagines a nightingale singing to Ruth, comforting her in her pain. Keats goes on to compare the mortality of all of us compared to the immortality of the nightingale’s song. As a secular poet, Keats implied a longing for immortality in his reference to the nightingale’s song.

But as a Christian, I take comfort in the nightingale’s eternal song because it reminds me that we don’t lose our loved ones forever. That even as the seasons in our lives end, new seasons begin, leading to the eventual eternal new season with Christ.

Paul encourages us in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (ESV) that we will see those who are with Christ again.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

I also love that Keats chose the nightingale, a sweet bird, like the sparrow Jesus chose to illustrate how He wants you to treat your life. Light and carefree, like the sparrow.

He doesn’t suggest it. He commands it, dear sisters in Christ. His words, “but I say to you” in the verse at the top sets an expectation in us. The discussion is, what is your response to His command?

Sisters trust Him, as the nightingale trusts Him. Let your faith in the God of Creation Who has given you eternal life carry you through this season of loss into the coming seasons in life, even as you stand in fields of alien corn.

Let’s be Ruth, knowing that the path of uncertainty ahead of us isn’t so uncertain because we know our place with Christ. We don’t need to run back to the comforts of home as Naomi’s other daughter-in-law did. We know Whose we are in this season. Let’s walk forward with confidence, singing a soft humble song like a nightingale.

Lord,

In every beautiful work of art, You are there. That’s why these paintings and sculptures and poems that bring out the beauty of Ruth’s humble trust in a season of scary uncertainty continue to strike a chord with artists as it has over the centuries. Help it strike a chord with my sisters here. Reveal to them that You have them in this season. Amen.