Advent Reflections – Week 3

Waiting and Watching 

I have an Advent devotional that follows the Jesse tree; that is, during Advent it traces the path  of God’s loving plan from the beginning of the Bible to the birth of Jesus. Today’s story was  from the book of Ruth. When we think of Christmas, we don’t often include the story of Ruth as  part of our reflections, but today I realized how very important this story is (and I love how the  path of Christmas glory includes so many women!).  

You see, it was a famine in Israel that caused Naomi’s husband to leave the family land behind  in Bethlehem for the land of Moab to find food. While they were there, Naomi’s two sons  married Moabite women (it just so happens one was Ruth), but in time, Naomi’s husband and  her two sons died, leaving the women alone and very vulnerable. So Naomi decides to return  home, and her daughters-in-law determine to return with her. She strongly urges them to stay  so they can find new husbands among their own people – their prospects might not be very  good amongst the Israelites, and certainly Naomi couldn’t provide for them herself. One  daughter leaves her, but Ruth determines to remain with her saying that wherever Naomi  went, she would go, and Naomi’s people would be her people, and Naomi’s God would be her  God. You have to wonder what kind of mother-in-law Naomi had been to inspire that kind of  loyalty, and what kind of faith she had demonstrated that Ruth would adopt her God so whole heartedly. 

The two women arrive safely in Bethlehem, and a series of “just so happens” events begins. To  keep the women from starving, Ruth goes to glean in the field of Boaz, who just so happens to  be Naomi’s relative who has the power to buy back the family land lost when Naomi’s family  left Bethlehem. And Boaz (whose mother just so happens to be Rahab, the prostitute who hid  the Israelite spies in Jericho) just so happens to notice Ruth in the field. Ruth just so happens to  tell Boaz her story, and he just so happens to be inclined to help. When Boaz goes to the one  relative above him with rights to buy back the land (which would also require marrying Ruth),  that relative just so happens to refuse, and Boaz just so happens to be the next in line. And it  just so happens that he has taken a fancy to Ruth and has mercy on Naomi’s family, so he  marries Ruth. They just so happen to have a son named Obed, who just so happens to become  the father of Jesse, who would just so happen to become the father of David – king of Israel and  through whose lineage God promises the Messiah will come.  

This story, unlike the part of the Christmas story we typically focus on this time of year, has no  angels, no mention of God speaking, no dreams. It’s a seemingly very ordinary story about  people driven by very ordinary desires and events – hunger, longing for home, struggle to  survive, struggle for security. But underneath it all, God was working his will to fulfill his 

promises to send his Messiah, his chosen one, who would not only become Israel’s king and  savior, but the world’s. Naomi thought they went to Moab to find food, but they really went to  find Ruth. She went back to Bethlehem to find security and family, but they really went back for  Ruth to be grafted into the family tree of Israel as a sign that the messiah would be for all  people, Jews and Gentiles alike.  

So why does this matter beyond a genealogical record? Because it shows that God works to  bring about his will in the ordinary, everyday desires, activities, and events of our lives, just as  he did in Naomi and Ruth’s. We’re not even told in this story that Naomi is seeking God’s will;  she is simply seeking to do what is best for her and her daughter-in-law. But I happen to believe  that Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, her willingness to leave her own people and follow Naomi and  Naomi’s God, reflects Naomi’s unrecorded, ordinary, daily faithfulness to God. Maybe she  wasn’t always faithful, but certainly God doesn’t do business with people who want nothing to  do with him.  

You see, God is still working out his plan to save the world – through those who follow his Son.  And he’s looking for people who will do business with him in that work; sometimes with angels  and signs, dreams and wonders, but more often through our ordinary, everyday, mundane lives  

as we just try to do the next right thing. But to do the next right thing, we have to wait and  watch with hearts oriented towards God. Naomi waited and watched when she returned to  Bethlehem, and when Ruth told her whom she’d met in the fields, their kinsman-redeemer  

Boaz, Naomi knew the next right thing to do. And it ended up being a significant part of God’s  plan to send Jesus and work salvation in the world. God intends for you to be a significant part  of his plan, too. He may not announce your next move with a vivid dream or an angelic  encounter, but if your heart is seeking God every day, even your most mundane tasks could be  furthering his kingdom plans. Your ordinary life matters in God’s grand scheme! In the kingdom,  who we are and whose we are gives heavenly weight to our everyday tasks. Take heart that in  our seemingly ordinary days, if we wait like Mary and watch like the shepherds, we too, can  help God work his grand plan through the “just so happens” in our lives. 

– Pastor Susan Schnieders