Unexpected Blessing

Read: Ruth 2:11-23


"Your daughter-in-law, who loves you, . . . is better to you than seven sons". —Ruth 4:15

Naomi and Ruth came together in less-than-ideal circumstances. To escape a famine in Israel, Naomi’s family moved to Moab. While living there, her two sons married Moabite women: Orpah and Ruth. Then Naomi’s husband and sons died. In that culture, women were dependent on men, which left the three widows in a predicament.

Word came to Naomi that the famine in Israel had ended, so she decided to make the long trek home. Orpah and Ruth started to go with her, but Naomi urged them to return home, saying, “The hand of the Lord has gone out against me!” (1:13).

Orpah went home, but Ruth continued, affirming her belief in Naomi’s God despite Naomi’s own fragile faith (1:15-18).

The story started in desperately unpleasant circumstances: famine, death, and despair (1:1-5). It changed direction due to undeserved kindnesses: Ruth to Naomi (1:16-17; 2:11-12) and Boaz to Ruth (2:13-14).

It involved unlikely people: two widows (an aging Jew and a young Gentile) and Boaz, the son of a prostitute (Josh. 2:1; Matt. 1:5).

It depended on unexplainable intervention: Ruth just so “happened” to glean in the field of Boaz (2:3).

And it ended in unimaginable blessing: a baby who would be in the lineage of the Messiah (4:16-17).

God makes miracles out of what seems insignificant: fragile faith, a little kindness, and ordinary people.

by Julie Ackerman   

In all the setbacks of your life as a believer,
God is plotting for your joy. —John Piper

Verse of the day

In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the prophets.

Matthew 7:12
New International Version 

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY'S VERSE...
The Golden Rule -- golden because it's genuine, lasting, and valuable. Imagine how different our world would be if we practiced this principle -- not just in our "church life" but in our daily life with our family, with our coworkers and employer, with the people we manage, with the folks on the freeway and in the neighborhoods where we drive, toward the waiters and waitresses who serve us. What a wonderfully different world it would be if the Golden Rule were to be practiced. I think I'll start changing my world with it today! How about you? 

MY PRAYER...
Generous Father, you have blessed me with so many rich and wonderful gifts. I can never repay you. One thing I want you to know, dear Father, is that I especially appreciate the way you have treated me with grace and not with justice or judgment. Give me the power to do the same with the people my life touches this week. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.