Finding God’s Blessing Wherever It Lies

Ruth 1:1-5, 4:13-17

 

 

          My wife went to the grocery store to get more meat for supper. Extra people were dropping in and we didn’t have quite enough – food, that is. We had plenty of people. Cindy called me and asked me to bring her purse. She had forgotten it. I took her purse to her and ran into some friends from my old church.  Susan and Steve. They are brother and sister. Both single, they hang out a lot with each other these days. It was odd to see a brother and sister in their forties spending so much time together. Odd but nice. They care and respect each other.

          The book of Ruth tells a similar story. Naomi has lost first her husband and later, her two grown sons. She is Jewish, though she and her husband had moved to Moab long ago. Now she is widowed and left with her two widowed daughters in law. She has no means of support and she finds herself a long way from help. She decides to go home to the land of Judah. At least there, she will have some male kin who might feel the inclination to help her out. A widow, a foreigner, over three thousand years ago, had little to nothing to look forward to without men in her life.

          Steve and Susan’s parents were my friends. They were older than me, but very vital, him a banker, her a nurse. They were strong Christians and they were strong with their connection to family. Cindy and I helped start a small group ministry in our home church and Joanne, their mother, gathered up half the people in her neighborhood for a not so small group that met in her home regularly. She bought extra copies of Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life and gave them out to the patients at the doctor’s office. She and Dan were poster children for how to be friends with their adult children.

          Naomi said her goodbyes to her daughters in law. It was the only way for her to survive. But Ruth said no to the goodbye. A young widow, she felt loyal to her mother in law and promised to go with Naomi. Her words to Naomi are among the most well known in all Scripture. “Whither thou goest, I will go and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” [Ruth 1: 16, KJV]. Another oddity. A daughter so faithful, so loyal to her mother in law that she will follow her even to a foreign country. Odd but nice. Ruth cared about and respected her mother in law.

          Ruth did follow Naomi back to Judah. She did find a kinsman redeemer named Boaz. He was man of integrity and responsibility. The love between him and Ruth certainly plays a role in the story, but it is not at center stage. Ruth’s loyalty to her mother in law, to family, her desire to find the good inside us all, made room for God to do his work. The real story is the ability of Ruth to find meaning in challenge, to find hope in the middle of trying circumstances. The real story of Ruth is to walk in faith and find the blessing where it lies.

          I visited with Steve and Susan in the grocery store. Have you ever noticed how grocery stores are a great place to connect? Something about all that produce, I guess. Anyway, Susan was in a motorized cart. She said she hasn’t walked in a year and a half. Hip problems turned into bigger hip problems. One surgery turned into more and her body has not responded the way the doctors hoped. After nine months without being able to walk, Susan has had to face that hard truth that life has changed for her. The house was sold. She could no longer keep it up, nor afford it. A move to handicapped housing followed. Another swallowing of pride. She coughed out her litany of woes and then, she started talking about the power of prayer. In a move that surprised me much more than her, I felt a sudden need to engage in prayer with Susan, and so we did. I pulled her out of line at the checkout and for a long minute, I bent down and we hugged. I hugged her very hard and I prayed. I think she did, too. Not a word was said aloud, but there was power in that prayer. I felt myself releasing to God, feeling myself weak in the thought of his power over us all.

          We got back in line and the three of us walked to the parking lot; that is, Steve and I walked, and Susan rode. They both talked about their blessings. He spends a lot of his free time with her. He calls it hanging out. With part of the money from the sale of her house, she bought an old Mustang GT. It sounds powerful. She says playfully she can ride around and flirt in it without getting out of the car. It didn’t cost much, but it gives her some pleasure. Makes sense to me. Her life is a struggle these days, and the car gives a few laughs along the way.

          Steve could have more of a social life if he didn’t spend so much time with his sister. If I know Steve and I do, that seldom occurs to him. Like Ruth with Naomi, Steve “hangs out” with Susan.

They both come from the root of a mother who lived out Proverbs 31 as though it were her favorite sweater, and a father who grew into that grace more and more with every passing year. The parents have gone on, but the signs of that parenting remain. Susan is doing like Ruth. She may walk again, but she may not. Regardless, she is finding meaning in her challenges and hope in the middle of trying circumstances. And at least for a season, her brother Steve is her Boaz, her kinsman redeemer.

          In the story of Ruth, or is it the story of Naomi, things turned around, Ruth was married, bore a son. The male line was re-established. The son she bore Boaz became the grandfather of King David. The neighborhood said he had been born to Naomi, their way of acknowledging that God answers prayer. That’s a very good way to end this story, for in the end, it’s not a story about Ruth or Naomi, not even about the son that became the product of all that faithfulness. It’s not a story about my friends Susan and Steve, or even about the trials she faces and the obedient way she holds on to her faith. But the seed of the real story lies within such experiences. The real story is not so much about our faith in family or even in God. The real story is about his faith in us.

          The story of Ruth is a story of obedience and faith. Things turned out well for Ruth and Naomi. It’s not always that way for us in this world. Sometimes the relief we seek from our misfortunes or our physical infirmities doesn’t come here on earth. God does not promise us that. What he does promise us is peace. Jesus talks to his disciples, his posse, the night of his arrest. They don’t know what to think of his behavior. They don’t really understand at the time what he means in the fourteenth chapter of John when he says to them: “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.” But they experience it in relationship to him through the Holy Spirit. What he does promise us is loyalty. The psalmist tells us the God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble [Psalm 46]. He tells Joshua that “I will never leave you or forsake you…that he is with us wherever we go” [Joshua 1:5].

          Wherever we go. Whatever we do. Whatever we encounter. He is there. We are not alone. I thank my friend Susan for reminding me that circumstances only test us; they do not define us. I thank my friend Steve for reminding me that hanging out with family is not a burden, but a privilege. God, give us all the wisdom to discern that you are always there, that you always have faith in us; that your blessings extend far beyond our immediate needs. Help us to see it and return it to you with our loyalty, our obedience and our love, whatever the circumstance. Help us to believe that there is power in every prayer we lift up to you, every song we sing to you, every hug we give for you in Jesus’ name. And help us too, to walk in faith…and find God’s blessing wherever it lies.