I am a processor…at least that is the way I like to put it…others might say that I am simply slow. I take a while to understand things and have to slowly move through
the aspects of a situation or even in knowing my own mind, considering all the parts before reaching a conclusion. This can be helpful at times and maddening at the same time…especially if you are the one waiting on me.
I was going to try and pick up the pace in our devotions in Ruth but I got stuck…stuck on verse 22. But then I thought, why be in a hurry? This verse gives us an opportunity
to deal with some of the more difficult questions regarding love.
So, Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
1:22
What seemed to stand out upon Naomi’s returning home is that she seems to forget something…could you tell what or rather who it was she forgot? Naomi forgot Ruth!
She says she has come back empty…she came back with nothing…really? Empty…with nothing…and there stands Ruth.
Remember how we said a couple of weeks ago that the answer to Naomi’s lament, God’s answer to His suffering daughter…was Ruth? Ruth loved Naomi, and not a worldly
love, but a hesed love, a God-love.
Ruth has given up everything, including her future, or so it would have seemed, to unite herself to her broken and suffering mother-in-law and for no reason other
than she has a love for her that is only matched by the love of Yahweh Himself.
Sometimes in our suffering or I would even add, our complaining about God’s wisdom as it is rolled out in our lives, we miss the blessings…we miss what we DO have,
even if and when those blessings and mercies might seem small. Indeed, at times they may be few, but that doesn’t mean they are not there.
Some time ago I heard the question asked: If you had the power of God, what would you change about your life? Wow…think of all I could change about my life if I had
that kind of authority…but then the follow up comment: And if you had the wisdom of God, you would change nothing.
I think those who have embraced the Lord’s work in their lives, and maybe even most especially those difficult and dark providences that shake us to our core…again,
those who have embraced this as God’ severe mercies, as His gracious work in them…would agree with that statement…If I had the wisdom of God, I would change nothing.
But perhaps there are some, maybe even many, who cannot see past the hurt, the pain, the betrayal…but the Lord, if you will give yourself to Him, will show you HIS
purpose and that purpose is always good even if it is only that we would see Him more clearly and trust Him more deeply.
A few years ago, Dana and I went to Alaska, we met up with my friend Charlie and his wife and went to our friend Gary’s house who has lived on the island of Sitka
for 40 years. I cannot even begin to express the beauty of that place, nor the laughter, prayer and joy of being with old friends.
So, our adventure took us to the back of some island accessible only by air or boat, where we rode four wheelers through trails and streams for about 30 minutes to
a beach where we built a campfire and marveled at what God has made.
Charlie and I were riding the four-wheelers along the beach when Charlie took a corner too fast and had a terrible accident. He has four fractures including both hips.
There was no way off the island but for the coast guard to fly in and take him away. He would later be evacuated to Seattle.
When Gary and I were in the hospital my dear broken up friend looked up and said to us: I have no regrets and I would do it all again…except I would slow down…I love
you guys and I know the Lord is in this as much as He has been in everything else during this glorious week.
I am not making light of suffering, or of the difficulties we face, but I am going to poke at us a bit, I am going to poke at us and ask us to open our eyes: In the
trial, the difficulty, are we saying that Jesus has abandoned us? Is there nothing good? Is there nothing for us to fix our eyes on so that we see the Lord’s mercies or that we see what He wants us to see about ourselves? And isn’t that good? I would even
add, isn’t that necessary?
One commentator intuitively pointed out that Ruth’s silence infers that she accepts the ambiguity that is Naomi. (Miller) Ruth probably feels a little invisible or
wishes she were.
We are all aware of how the Bible presents its characters, even its heroes, warts and all! As well as every church mentioned in the Bible has problems, some of them
quite sever.
We easily get stuck on the “dark” side of a person, or even a church, seeing only their weaknesses and deficiencies. It is easy…because we don’t have to exaggerate
(we usually do, but we don’t have to), the person is a sinner, they are broken and if that is all we want to see, then that is all we will see.
I call this relational-reductionism…where we reduce a person down to their worst day, we boil them down to their sin, or the parts of them they have struggled with
and say, “there that is who they are.” When we do this, and we all do it, it helps us marginalize the other person, or to place ourselves above them even to control them because after all, look at what they did, look who they are…
…This helps us maintain our pride instead of killing it. We over read the malevolence in others while of course under reading it in ourselves and become arrogant judges
of our brothers and sisters. We reduce them down to their worst day or their worst sin and keep them there and feel quite good about ourselves. The problem is that when we do this, we make sure that we can not only control them, but we assure ourselves that
we will never understand love.
To be continued…
Prayer: Father, I ask you for the wisdom to receive from Your hand with understanding, that I might know Your purpose and behind each trial or sorrow know that
it is Your hand that places it in mine and that I may know that it is Your grace that leads and directs every step. Give me a holy discontentment, that I might not coast in my spiritual life but ever want more of You, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymn: Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me?