Handfuls of Purpose

"Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them that she may glean them, and rebuke her not." Ruth 2:15-16 (KJV)

     I came across this story yesterday and received an entirely different perspective than what I had about it. In times past, I would read this story and would consider it a sweet love story in which a down and out woman meets a rich man and becomes his wife. How nice. However, when I read it again yesterday I noticed some intricacies that had once eluded me.

       Ruth was a woman who had an elevated status when her husband was alive. When tragedy befell her she went from prominence to abject poverty in the blink of an eye. She faces a tough choice soon after, go with her mother in law who was heading back to Israel to endure her bitterness, or stay with her sister in law in a place that was familiar to her and safe. As we all know, Ruth left the familiar and ventured into a land completely unkown to her and allied herself to a God she did not know.

        Many of us have sympathy for widows, but if we truly understand the times they lived in, consider that women were second class citizens, and widows were viewed as even less. Now Ruth had the responsibility not only to take care of herself but her mother in law as well. A daunting task at best. Yet, this unknown (to her) God began to show her favor in unprecedented ways so much so that this rich man who owned a field saw her and commanded his servants to leave her handfuls of grain for the purpose of showing her favor.

        I wonder how often in life when I feel down and out, when it seems like everything in my life is conspiring against me that God gives me handfuls of purpose. To keep my head up and keep me moving. What is lost in this story is that the down and out servant picking up morsels that everyone leaves behind for her, ends up owning the whole field. Makes me pause to think about for a second, what God has in store for all of us who just keep moving forward.