I have struggled with modern Christmas. If I don’t watch it, I turn into the Grinch, cynical at all the commercialism and stressing obligations. But my frustration with the neon light replacing the true Light only turns my own heart dark.

This is a story of courage, perseverance, and victory. A shy six-year-old little Hunter first came to me, his teacher at children’s church, with a depth of soul that squeezed my heart. He climbed my lab and searched me eyes for something only he knew. We became friends, and I sensed it was a precious honor.

“Is it cheating if I pray to God now after so many years away, ignoring Him?” My precious friend had lived her life in pursuit of men’s love and theater’s success, sporadically but never permanently achieving both, and usually feeling more battered and confused than satisfied by it.

I just turned 47. After more than two decades in America, I still haven’t grasped why it’s considered impolite to ask a woman her age. I am so relieved not to be 17! The world was spinning then, as an Alice-in -Wonderland concoction of disconnected experiments, and I didn’t know where to find solid ground.

In retrospect, it was impatience and discontentment mixed with illusions of an easy income that drove us into the business that became our nightmare. Then a young pastor of a fragile church plant and new father, my man sought the solution to our struggle for sufficient time and money for both, in what appeared to have worked for others.

I am furiously typing away because I woke up to a quiet house this morning and grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down to read the first chapter. Then I ran to the computer and here I am. And oh my sister! I don’t even know how to express to you what I am feeling or thinking. I felt like, something happened. Someone else gets it. I am not crazy.

Invite the Lord’s blessing:

Ruth 4:11

“And all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, “ We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.” Who are witnesses to your life?

Invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you:

Ruth 4:1

“Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there; and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, “Come aside, friend, sit down here.” So he came aside and sat down.” Are you in any way at a gate, a cross road, a choice to be made:

Ruth 3:11“And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman.” To what situation is He telling you, “And now, my daughter, do not fear. “?

Why did Boaz promise Ruth to do for her all that she requested?

Ruth 2:10

“So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “ Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” What emotions do you think prompted in Ruth’s question?

Ruth 2:5-9. Week 7

Day 1 – Whose is this?

Ask the Author to open your eyes to Him:

Ruth 2:5

“Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” What do you think Boaz noticed in Ruth?

“So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “ Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “ Go, my daughter.”

Why do you think the Author mentions Ruth’s nationality, but not Naomi’s?

This entire week, we will mine the treasures found in this one verse: Ruth 2:1

“There was a relative of Naomi’s husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz.” Day 1:

Scholars agree that Boaz is a type of Jesus, and we will approach him as such. Invite Him to show you more of Who He is:

Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them; and the women said, “ Is this Naomi?”

But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother- in- law, but Ruth clung to her. Glance back over Ruth 1:1-13.

Then she arose with her daughters- in- law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited His people by giving them bread. Therefore she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters- in- law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

We will read these five verses every day, and then meditate on them, one a day. Ruth 1:1-5

Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion — Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah.

Before we actually turn to the pages of the Book of Ruth, let’s set the stage and prepare our understanding. The words have different meaning when we know who is speaking. I listen differently to someone I might suspect to be a con artist than to my dearest friend. I can’t separate the words from the person speaking them.

Welcome to my virtual garden at the ocean’s edge. Come, lean into the winds blowing from eternity and let them touch you where you need it most. This is a place of holding raw reality in open hands to the Creator Who gives beauty for ashes, Who understands every fluttering heart beat, and Who loves us at our worst.