Welcome to Day 12 of Advent! I am praying for all of you reading that you are growing in your appreciation and understanding of God's love story to you and to me. As much as I've studied these many parts of Scripture before, I love walking through them like this in light of Christmas and preparing for Jesus' coming.
I've had several people comment to me how much they love Ann's writing but how full of thoughts it is! Didn't I warn you:)? She can't be read quickly or when you're unable to give your full attention to her writing. But good! This chapter especially - I don't have a lot to add or comment on as I was so overwhelmed by her words and imagery. I need to read this stuff with kleenex!
OK. So we're at Ruth. And as much as this book is about Ruth, it starts with Naomi. Naomi times (113) Ann coins the phrase, and ohhhhh, how I can relate. In some seasons, for all their gloss and glitz, it can be achingly hard to find gifts, and days can feel like fists. (113) True confession time. I have literally had to pry my tightened fists open lately and hold them up to God, taking what He has to give. I have not always wanted it.
I have been bitter and Naomi is bitter and she can't see the gifts in front of her and I haven't either. She sees how she was full and became empty and has no hope that it will ever be different. I am convicted by the words cynicism is simplistic. In a fallen world, how profound is it to see the cracks? The radical and the reflective, the Ruths and the revolutionaries - they are the ones on the road, in the fields, on the wall, pointing to the dawn of the new Kingdom coming (113) and everything else she says in the rest of the paragraph!
I read on to agree with her words - expectations can come steal the gifts.(114) How true! Ruth is standing right beside Naomi, ready to follow her anywhere and Naomi remains bitter. How many "Ruths" have I ignored or not appreciated? It happens. When we have an agenda for God, we can't see the gifts from God. (114)
There are no brazen miracles to be seen in the entire book of Ruth. (114) Good point! And yet the unfolding of seemingly mundane and unrelated events all fall together in God's almighty plan. Isn't that often the way? We just don't have that perspective always when we're living the mundane. The mundane is what's making miracles. (116)
Every little thing is going to be okay - you have a Kinsman-Redeemer who takes you and is redeeming everything.(116) The Concordia Self Study Bible says the term "kinsman redeemer" is used 13 times and illustrates the mediating work of Jesus. So not only is this another branch in the family tree of Jesus but he's all over this book though never mentioned.
Naomi doesn't stay bitter and empty but through Ruth and Boaz's selfless acts and God's blessing upon them, she is brought to happiness once again! And Ruth, a foreigner, is grafted into the family tree of the Saviour of the Nations!
I really liked the quote from Stuart Briscoe at the end of the chapter. If that doesn't say it in a nutshell! I should have that framed or made into cards:)
3 comments:
A chapter that "hit" me, as well, Honey. I, too, loved the closing quote and I like the idea of cards :) Susanne
God used this chapter like medicine for my soul today!
First, let me comment on Rachel's thought at the beginning of her post - "As much as I've studied these many parts of Scripture before, I love walking through them like this in light of Christmas and preparing for Jesus' coming." I wholeheartedly agree! And isn't that just the way God's living and active Word works? As much as I've ever studied any part of Scripture before, when I read it again it is in a new light - I am in a new place in my life with a perspective I've never had before, preparing for things I wasn't preparing for before, and God's Word sheds light on these things too, so that I learn something new each time! God's Word is the ultimate gift that keeps on giving, isn't it???
My particular highlights that Rachel didn't already mention...
p.114 - "...brilliant people don't deny the dark; they are the ones who never stop looking for His light in everything." That is how to be genuinely positive.
p.114-115 - "all the mundane middle that just keeps pressing you in, stretching you out, deadening you slowly numb." There it is. That's my line. That's my current struggle in a nutshell. That's why I've taken all this time to do this Advent "book club." I'm trying get some feeling back in myself because I feel so numb.
Alright, now, I hope it's not inappropriate to use this comment section of the blog almost as my own personal journal. If so, let me know. But I'm going to share how this chapter struck me:
Question 3 - So very many things have "just so happened" in my life, indicating that God is behind them! I can't even count them! There have been big things and small things, all over the place! Why then, with that and with all the Ruths in my life (enumerated when I answered question 2), do I get so down? Probably because I worry I'm not doing enough with what I've been given. I want to give back something spectacular to reflect what I've been given, but it feels like the mundane catches up to me and pulls me down. And then I get depressed, because how can someone so spectacularly blessed become so defeated by the mundane? Here's the realization that tied the chapter in a nice little bow for me: God uses the mundane to remind me who I am - a mere human. A human infected with the disease of sin. He is the one who makes blessings and spectacular things - I do not make them by my striving. And so, perhaps, that is the miracle of the mundane for me. The mundane keeps me grounded so that I can look up and be connected to my Lord.
Thank you, Father.
I am so grateful that you've opened your heart and shared your struggles here in answer to question 3! I know better now how to pray for you:) I can relate in my own way to your struggle of the mundane at times in my life too. You are not alone - God. Is. With. Us. Merry Christmas!!!
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