"May the LORD reward your work, and your wages be full from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge."
All of us, I'm sure, have tried our luck at finding a card that has just the right words for someone we love, only to come up empty because of empty words. I still keep trying, but, honestly, I've discovered a better way. I've won the heart of my wife over and over again by just writing my own words on a plain piece of paper. Maybe you learned this way before I did, but I realized It isn't expensive cards that get her attention; she just wants to know my deep, heartfelt feelings for her, no matter how plain the paper it comes on. Think of the money I could have saved over the years! But if there were a card to be made with incredible words, Boaz won the prize when he said to Ruth, "May the LORD reward your work, and your wages be full from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge." There was a spark in this of something yet to come. Ruth had everything against her: a young, childless widow; a woman, and worse yet, a foreign woman, among a people with deep prejudice, and penniless. She was on the low end of the totem pole in that particular day and culture. But, whereas, Ruth had everything against her, Boaz wishes everything for her. His heart grabs the heart of God for the down and out and he's overcome, not with prejudice against her, but with the inner beauty of one who had left all she knew for a God she barely knew. Where some saw no hope, Boaz gives great hope and, in the end, gives her his heart. He saw in her the very qualities that God had seen in this one who would say to her poverty-stricken mother-in-law, Naomi, who was going back to her land of Judah, from Moab, after the death of her husband and two sons: "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me," (Ruth 1:16-17). This was a tremendous step of courage and commitment. She had taken refuge under the wings of God, and there is no greater refuge. Ruth became the mother of Obed, who begot Jesse, who begot David, the line through which Jesus came. All God is looking for is someone who will give themselves to Him with unqualified commitment, and it's no telling what He will do! For you, a precious child of God, I pray with deep love, "May the LORD reward your work, and your wages be full from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge." Amen.
All of us, I'm sure, have tried our luck at finding a card that has just the right words for someone we love, only to come up empty because of empty words. I still keep trying, but, honestly, I've discovered a better way. I've won the heart of my wife over and over again by just writing my own words on a plain piece of paper. Maybe you learned this way before I did, but I realized It isn't expensive cards that get her attention; she just wants to know my deep, heartfelt feelings for her, no matter how plain the paper it comes on. Think of the money I could have saved over the years! But if there were a card to be made with incredible words, Boaz won the prize when he said to Ruth, "May the LORD reward your work, and your wages be full from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge." There was a spark in this of something yet to come. Ruth had everything against her: a young, childless widow; a woman, and worse yet, a foreign woman, among a people with deep prejudice, and penniless. She was on the low end of the totem pole in that particular day and culture. But, whereas, Ruth had everything against her, Boaz wishes everything for her. His heart grabs the heart of God for the down and out and he's overcome, not with prejudice against her, but with the inner beauty of one who had left all she knew for a God she barely knew. Where some saw no hope, Boaz gives great hope and, in the end, gives her his heart. He saw in her the very qualities that God had seen in this one who would say to her poverty-stricken mother-in-law, Naomi, who was going back to her land of Judah, from Moab, after the death of her husband and two sons: "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me," (Ruth 1:16-17). This was a tremendous step of courage and commitment. She had taken refuge under the wings of God, and there is no greater refuge. Ruth became the mother of Obed, who begot Jesse, who begot David, the line through which Jesus came. All God is looking for is someone who will give themselves to Him with unqualified commitment, and it's no telling what He will do! For you, a precious child of God, I pray with deep love, "May the LORD reward your work, and your wages be full from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge." Amen.
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