(12/30) Gleanings

Remember Ruth. Young, widowed, foreign, she humbled herself to gather bits and scraps in a stranger’s field, meager sustenance to care for a beloved mother-in-law. She had no dreams of grandeur, but sought to live in obedient surrender to the highest good she knew.

Your people will be my people, and your God my God.

And so He was. She gleaned in barley fields, unaware that a redeemer protected and provided, never guessing that in a field far hence, Fruit would spring forth to feed the whole world’s desperate need. She received unexpected gifts of noble husband, comfortable home, and baby son. Ruth, once destitute, foreign, bereaved — was renamed. Adopted. Favored. Beloved.

But that’s not all. What she didn’t know was what would be.

Ruth, the great-great grandmother of King David.
Ruth, the ancestor of Jesus Christ.

We glean what we see, these bits and pieces He pulls from His sheaves, and precious are the unexpected gifts He gives. But that’s not all. What we don’t know is what will be.

May we be comforted in our smallness, laying aside dreams of grandeur, and humbly doing the work He gives in the field of His choosing.

May we remember Ruth, and live in obedient surrender to the highest good we know.

And may we rejoice in what we don’t know. There is a Redeemer who sees, protects, and provides, and He is preparing a harvest far hence. In the heart of God, what will be already is.

And with that hope, I bow low to gather another ear of grain.