Week 16 · about 45 minutes
Ruth Stays and Gleans
Ruth 1–2 · Memory verse Ruth 1:16
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Ruth in the Barley), the matching word search and answer key (Ruth’s Loyal Love), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a handful of rice or paper grain
Hold up a handful of rice or paper grain. In about five minutes, tell the class this: Ruth chooses loyalty to Naomi and meets kindness in a barley field. Show the prop and ask, “What does this have to do with Ruth Stays and Gleans?” Let two children answer. Then read Ruth 1:16 together: “Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.” Close by asking one child to say the lesson back in their own words, using the prop.
Story script
Naomi was far from home, and her husband and sons had died. She decided to go back to Bethlehem. Her daughter-in-law Ruth could have stayed with her own people. Instead Ruth held on. “Where you go I will go. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.”
They arrived poor. It was barley harvest. The law of God said farmers should leave grain at the edges for people in need. Ruth went out to glean, picking up leftover stalks under the sun. It was humble work.
A landowner named Boaz noticed her. He told her to stay in his fields, to drink from the water jars, and not to be afraid. He had heard how she cared for Naomi. He prayed that God, under whose wings she had come to take refuge, would repay her.
Loyalty sometimes looks like leftover barley and a long walk. God saw Ruth’s ordinary faithfulness and wove her into Jesus’ family line. Kindness in a field can be holy. Look for someone who needs a “you belong here” this week.
Group game
Scatter the grain. Ruths glean what is left and bring it to a Naomi. Boaz then shares extra. Talk about staying loyal.
Craft
Glue grains or yellow paper onto a field and draw Ruth and Naomi walking together.
Memory verse
Ruth 1:16
“Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.”
Take-home prayer
God, give me Ruth’s loyal love. Help me notice people who need a safe place and a kind word. Amen.