It’s easy to see how past good and bad decisions affect our present life. Choices about education, where to live, who to marry, what to invest in, etc. impact our life today.

But do my decisions touch or have any influence on future generations? Today we’re going to take our fourth and final peek into the book of Ruth.

In chapter one, we saw Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, grieving over the loss of her husband and two sons. Without hope, Naomi traveled back to Bethlehem, her hometown, with one daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moabitess, a foreigner.

Ruth had decided to leave her family, homeland, and gods. Hear her determination as she speaks these now famous lines to Naomi. “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16b).

Skip to the end of the story in chapter four. (Spoiler alert for those who’ve never read Ruth.)

Ruth ends up marrying Boaz, a kinsman-redeemer of Naomi. Ruth and Boaz have a son named Obed. Obed becomes the father of Jesse. Jesse, from Bethlehem, becomes the father of David, AKA King David. And waaaaay down the line of family lineage comes “…Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16).

Wow! I’m sure Ruth never would have guessed that her name would be listed in the genealogy of Jesus. Her decisions to move to a small village called Bethlehem and marry an upstanding Jewish man impacted generations. But there it is in Matthew 1:5b, “Boaz the father of Oded, whose mother was Ruth.”

May we prayerfully weigh our decisions and pray they will positively impact generations to come.