Who Is That?

Ruth 2:5 

“Who does that young women belong to?”

We recently watched Rambo: First Blood.  The movie opens up as John Rambo, a drifter, coming home after the war and quietly moving through a little town in the mountains where he runs into the local sheriff.  Well, he and Rambo get off to bad start and the legend of Rambo begins. 

We are never too far away from someone seeking to know who we are.  Here we find Ruth risking her life picking up whatever the harvesters did not pick up and the owner of field sees Ruth and inquires about her.  Now there is no kick and kill Rambo movie that starts here but a great story does begin. Boaz, the owner of field, is talking to the harvesters and they tell him all about Ruth. Ruth’s story is then told to Boaz about how she pleaded to glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.  Boaz then shows kindness to her, lets her eat with workers, and glean all she wants that day which totaled to about 30 lbs. of grain.  Boaz knew all about how Ruth left her homeland to stay with Naomi and because of this, Boaz is grateful. 

Sometimes in life we are forced to do things we would not normally do, things that seem out of the ordinary for us and might even be dangerous like in the case of Ruth.  I am sure Naomi and Ruth had very little food when Ruth made the decision to go glean for some left-over grain.  You might be in her spot in life.  Down to the wire on time and your motivation has left you.  We often find ourselves here just pouting and feeling sorry for ourselves, but Ruth’s answer was to get some grain at risk to her wellbeing.  You see, God never calls us to pout or whine. In fact, pouting and whining is one thing that made God angry in the wilderness. 

The harvesters told Boaz that Ruth had been there all day with only a short break, and she was still working gathering grain for her and Naomi.  I often stop here and think what if Ruth was a lazy person and Boaz found her pouting and whining. The story would have been totally different. Always remember that as a Christian, someone is watching you and observing you.  At your job, in your family, or out with friends your actions most definitely are telling your story. So today do some self evaluation and ask yourself what story are your actions telling to those that are watching. Someone as important as Boaz could notice you and completely change your life.