Corona Devo 594

Have you ever noticed that not much ever seems to be happening in our lives, until we step back and realize that everything that has been "happening", was actually supposed to happen.

Know what I mean?

So what do we do in the meantime...while life is happening?

Simply put, we live our days in God's ways. We do our best to do our best for Him and in Him. And along the way, as it would happen, God's plan and vision for our lives...happens.

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Ruth was a young widow living with her mother-in-law, Naomi, who was also a widow. Without husbands as providers, they needed food. They needed money. They needed provision.

So, what did Ruth do? She went to work, as the Bible advises us:

A hard worker has plenty of food, but a person who chases fantasies ends up in poverty. (Proverbs 28:19)

“The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” (11) We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. (12) Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. (13) And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.  (2 Thessalonans 3:10-13)

Ruth went to work. We should too. The "work" that God has for each of us each day will vary and differ, but idleness brings no reward and it doesn't put food on the table. Nor does it honor the One who made us with gifts to serve Him.

So, Ruth went to work, and as it happened, her discipline in doing so and in honoring the Lord with her life choices brought good things.

Now there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz, who was a relative of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech.

(2) One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it.”...

(3) So Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters. And as it happened, she found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz, the relative of her father-in-law, Elimelech. ~Ruth 2:1-3

And as it happened...

What we do know is that Ruth went to work in a humble and kind way, rather than being resentful and entitled.

What we might not know is the old Jewish custom that if a woman was widowed, the first option of remarrying her falls to a relative within her family ("kin"). The man that remarried a widow actually had a historical "title" known as "kinsman redeemer", because he was (in a sense) "redeeming" the widow and restarting her future, her family-options, and her life.

Ruth was just "going to work", but as it happened, so was God...

(4) While she was there, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. “The Lord be with you!” he said.

“The Lord bless you!” the harvesters replied.

(5) Then Boaz asked his foreman, “Who is that young woman over there? Who does she belong to?”

(6) And the foreman replied, “She is the young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi. (7) She asked me this morning if she could gather grain behind the harvesters. She has been hard at work ever since, except for a few minutes’ rest in the shelter.”

(8) Boaz went over and said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Stay right here with us when you gather grain; don’t go to any other fields.... (9) ...And when you are thirsty, help yourself to the water they have drawn from the well.”

(10) Ruth fell at his feet and thanked him warmly. “What have I done to deserve such kindness?” she asked. “I am only a foreigner.”

(11) “Yes, I know,” Boaz replied. “But I also know about everything you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. I have heard how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers. (12) May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.”

(13) “I hope I continue to please you, sir,” she replied. “You have comforted me by speaking so kindly to me, even though I am not one of your workers.”

(17) So Ruth gathered barley there all day...it filled an entire basket. (18) She carried it back into town and showed it to her mother-in-law. Ruth also gave her the roasted grain that was left over from her meal.

(19) “Where did you gather all this grain today?” Naomi asked. “Where did you work? May the Lord bless the one who helped you!”

So Ruth told her mother-in-law about the man in whose field she had worked. She said, “The man I worked with today is named Boaz.”

(20) “May the Lord bless him!” Naomi told her daughter-in-law. “He is showing his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband. That man is one of our closest relatives, one of our kinsman redeemers.”

(21) Then Ruth said, “What’s more, Boaz even told me to come back and stay with his harvesters until the entire harvest is completed.”

(22) “Good!” Naomi exclaimed. “Do as he said, my daughter"...

(23) So Ruth worked alongside the women in Boaz’s fields and gathered grain with them until the end of the barley harvest. Then she continued working with them through the wheat harvest in early summer.  ~Ruth 2:4-13, 17-23

It sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale, doesn't it?

But we cannot gloss over the truth that as it happened, Ruth and Naomi both lost their husbands earlier in the story. That is no fairy tale. But they kept on living for the Lord and following His commands, and as it happened, life began to change.

Try as we might, we know that our lives are no fairy tale either.

We might be in the shock of loss today. Or we might be in the realization of lack-of-provision in our life today. Or we might be in the optimistic, spirit-filled mood of getting out there to glean-the-field today.

At any of these stages of our story, and in all of them, as it happens, God is at work in our bigger story.

So, let's get to work today, and as it happens, our discipline in doing so and in honoring the Lord with our life choices will bring His good will for our lives.

Blessings, 

sarah     

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com