Colette
When considering the love described by the word ‘storge’ the story of Naomi and Ruth (described in the Hebrew scriptures in the book of Ruth) comes quickly to mind.
Naomi was widowed and far from home with her two widowed daughters-in-law. Hungry and disempowered, she heard that God had made food available in her homeland. She decided to go back to Bethlehem, in Judah, instructing her two daughters-in-law to leave her and find new lives. While one, Orpah, returned to her mothers home, the other Ruth, clung to Naomi. Ruth declared that they would stay together, that their love and kinship would survive: Naomi’s God and people would be Ruth’s God and people. This storge between the two women would lead to a new life and a new family, a heritage that would again be marked in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthews Gospel.