A Ship in the Wind
A Ship in the Wind
Ruth 2:1-3
Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go my daughter.” … And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz.
Approach these introductory remarks as if you’re watching a play. Picture the stage from your theatre seat, with its red curtain rising and a new scene taking place. Notice the difference in the set-pieces and props. The last scene, the scene of Judges, left a demolished stage in its wake, ashes all over the floor from the fires of Abimelech’s atrocities, and rubble from Samson’s liaisons, and even blood stains from the Benjamite rebellion. Ah, but the curtain has risen and there’s a new scene entirely. Notice how edifying and colorful the props are. New hillsides covered in green grass and new grain fields blooming with harvest and new skies full of rain clouds. Rejoice with the pitter-patter of footsteps now dancing across the stage where the sounds of reckless stampeding once rang out. Feel the atmospheric change as life and hope and peace now emanate from the Promised Land afresh.
And she happened to come to the field belonging to Boaz. Oh, what a marvelous coincidence! Would you look at that, friend! Faithful, virtuous, hardworking, Cinderella-like Ruth rolls up her sleeves and gets busy working, putting herself in harm’s way for the sake of her elderly mother-in-law, and she just so happens to find herself smack dab in the middle of the field belonging to faithful, virtuous, hardworking, prince-like Boaz. Surely, if Boaz isn’t Time Magazine’s noblest man of his generation, he’s still very much the face on the cover. But marvel at the mystery of providence and freewill working in tandem here. That somehow, by the complex combination of a lifetime worth of choices, of countless defining moments, Ruth ends up in this little field in the vast expanse of the cosmos, in the center of Redemption’s currents, moved to this point by a good and mighty purpose, guided here not as a puppet on a string, but as a ship in the wind.