Boaz

Just recently I bought a new study bible.  I had been considering a new bible for some time.  Maybe it’s the newness or the clean fresh pages, but something always draws me into a new bible.  That was partly the reason I decided to purchase a new one.   My first night with it, I smiled, but with a little hesitation, I did the requisite “open it and see what verse or page it falls on”.   Half expecting it to land on a verse to the effect of “Woe thou wicked sinner”.   I closed one eye but, I smiled at where it opened - The book of Ruth.  

As a widow, I was drawn instantly into the story of Naomi and her plight.  Naomi and her husband moved to a distant country called Moab with their two sons.  While they were there, her husband passes away.  Her two sons had married Moabite women but both sons also pass away before having any children to carry on the family’s name.  The book picks up with her decision to return to her homeland in Judah.   She tells her two widowed daughters-in-law that they should return to their own families as she has nothing to offer them.  Naomi is struggling with where God has her life.  The two women obviously love their mother-in-law but one, Orpah, decides to part ways with the family and return to her own family.  The other, Ruth, however, decides instead to stay with her.   I love Ruth’s words in this first Chapter.  

Ruth 1:16-18:

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

Ruth’s faithfulness and determination to stay with her mother-in-law become how she eventually finds her new destiny.  When they arrive in Judah, people are obviously impressed with Ruth.  Her faithfulness was admired but many.  As a result, when Ruth finally meets a distant relative of Naomi’s named Boaz, he already knows her story.   Fast forward to the end of the book, Boaz eventually marries Ruth and gives her children.  The two become grandparents of David - A man after God’s own heart.  Ruth could not have known her destiny when she left Moab and yet God did. 

Are you waiting on your Boaz?   I know that I am.   By “Boaz” I don’t mean necessarily that someone to share life.  Are you currently believing God for something and while you’re sure He realizes it, it’s not happened yet?  Maybe healing of some kind or to change things so that you can get back to a life that you see for yourself - “if only”?    Whether you’re just really not sure what it is or you are positive you know what (and tell God frequently)… whatever “it” is….or the hope of it, I suppose... it’s what gets you up in the morning.    It’s that hope that maybe tomorrow you’ll get that answer that helps you fall asleep in the dark quiet of the night.  I have a hope for a “Boaz”. Feeling kind of lost where I find myself now!  It’s interesting that my bible opened up to a book whose underlying question is simply “God, where are you in all this?”  I realize the same providence that weaved Ruth into Boaz’s field on the very day he would happen to be in his fields is available to all of us.   It’s just hard to accept (for me) sometimes God is working even when I don’t see it or feel it.  

So, after being reminded of this, today I’ve decided to focus on what faithfulness looks like.  I need to remember that God knows exactly what I’m needing just the timing isn’t right.  And to not give up.   In this fast pace life, we expect (and want) equally fast relief from the dark and uncomfortable places.  The reality of these dark, quiet places are where we really grow the most.  So, today, I am reading and re-reading Ruth’s response.   It helps me to remember that God works with the faithful.   That in the uncomfortable places, I need to be determined to be faithful to the right things.   Not worried about what’s in it for me or when my trip to Judah will make clear my next step in life.   Instead, I will continue to pray for the grace to just focus on making the trip to Judah.  Or wherever He leads me next.

 

changeless...

Hebrews 13:8 - "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever."

How many people do you know who are always the same?  No matter what time of day, what day of the week, or where you see them, they're always the same?  You never have to wonder or guess what kind of mood they are in because they don't have "moods".  They will have the same attitude and tone with you every single time you meet them.

I don't know about you, but I don't know many people who are like that.

I know that *I* am not like that.  Sometimes I'm tired and not as jovial, sometimes I'm in pain and can be a little grumpy or sometimes I'm just distracted with other things and not quite as attentive.  And isn't this just the way we are as humans?  We change with the situation or circumstance or even the weather.  Which of us can say we don't at least feel a little discouraged when we plan something outside and the forecast calls for rain?

How often do we get annoyed at the people we love who need to make changes in their lives, who say they are going to "do better", but then they fall right back into the same pattern?  Whether it's an addiction or just some bad habits, this can be so annoying and so disheartening.

I have, like most of us do, family members who have fallen into addiction and been in and out of rehab and in and out of jail too.  This particular person spent quite a long period of time in jail then got released and seemed to come out a new person.  A better person.  A wiser person.  We all had high hopes that he would step up and be a father to his four children, that he'd begin living a purposeful, productive life.  My husband and I took him to church with us several times before he started going regularly with his mother and children to another church in town.

Then I heard he'd gotten a job about 80 miles from here, he was moving up there to stay for a bit with his niece while he got settled and looked for his own apartment.

The next thing I knew, he was back in jail for use and possession.  I am heartbroken over it, and have listened to my family speak harshly about being "done with" him and giving up on him now.

And I admit, I felt this way too.  It's hard to keep believing in someone when they continually let you down.

Then my mind turned to God and how He must feel about me.  I am constantly letting Him down, going back on my word, not keeping to my declarations of devotion to live for Him.   How many times must He have wanted to give up on me? How many times would He have been well within His rights, as we mortals view them, to have turned His back on me?  But how many times has He instead readily said, "I forgive you.  It's okay.  Just come back to Me and you can start over.  Again."

That's a sobering thought when we look at others as hopeless and not worth giving another chance.  Jesus has told us we are to forgive 490 times. Matthew 18:22  Look it up, get out your calculator.

 70 x 7= 490

(note: I won't link the ESV of this verse up there since it changes "seventy times seven" to "seventy seven times"!!)  Anyhow, either way, that's a LOT of times to forgive, don't you think?  But I wonder how many times beyond that has God gone for me?

Makes things look a whole lot different.  And it goes back to Hebrews 13:8... God doesn't change.  We are always changing and our feelings and even loyalties are like the water flowing in a creek...never the same, always moving and changing.  God's love and mercy is like a rock, firm and unmoving.

Lord, help me to be like You, especially when it comes to extending grace to those around me.  Help me remember how often, how tirelessly YOU have forgiven me.  Let me see others through Your eyes!

Amen!