A Very “Ruth” Christmas
Ruth 1.1-17
This last week our church’s deacons hosted the widows and widowers of our church for a Christmas dinner. I was asked to provide the devotions for the evening and thought perhaps I should share those devotions with the entire church.
Christmas movies, those nostalgic and sentimental flicks that populate Netlflix and Prime with sappy stories of family and romantic love, lean heavily on the idea of Christmas Miracles. (Has there ever been a Christmas movie that doesn’t revolve around the idea of a Christmas Miracle?) But, this makes sense, in a way. The sentiment of hoping for a drastic change to our circumstances is nearly universal. We can all recall moments where we’d like to dial up a Christmas Miracle. When we are overwhelmed, sad, lonely or sick, a miracle would come in handy.
In the book of Ruth, Noemi’s life has turned upside down. She could use one of those Christmas Miracles. She had moved to Moab, away from her home in Israel. Her husband and her sons all died. She was left a widow with no wealth or future. The only thing left to her is the loyalty of her daughter-in-law Ruth who clung to her as she made a beautifully poetic declaration of companionship. Unfortunately, Noemi cannot see this beautiful gift for what it is. With Ruth still clinging to her she changes her name to Mara, which means ‘bitter.’
Ann Voskamp says sometimes “Our expectations can come and steal our gifts.” Naomi, given the gift of Ruth, can’t see it because her life didn’t turn out as she expected. She returns home to Bethlehem with Ruth in tow and still declares, “I went away full, bu the Lord brought me home empty.”
It happens. “When we have an agenda for God,” says Voskamp “we can’t see the gifts of God.” There are no miracles in the book of Ruth. No angels appear. No bushes burst into flame. No visions. It is the story of a mundane and normal life with regular suffering and obstacles. Yet it has God’s fingerprints all over it. Fingerprints like: Ruth ending up in Bethlehem, gleaning in the field of the one person who could be her kinsman redeemer, happens to find him sleeping and asks him to spread cloak over her and he surprisingly says ‘yes’, Ruth practically proposes to Boaz and he says ‘yes’, Boaz buys back Noemi’s family land when the current owner could have said ‘no’, then they have a son and name him Obed who happens to be the grandfather of David – the ancestor of Jesus himself.
The message of all this non-miraculous and mundane life of Ruth is that everything in the end will be ok because God is working through the little things. “The mundane makes miracles” argues Voskamp. God came through a manger. And that miracle of mundane gifts is never not happening. “When your Father’s hand isn’t readily apparent, it is only because he is readying gifts. Gifts that come out of unseen places.” Like the gift of Ruth for Naomi. Like Jesus born in Bethlehem, in a manger, to a virgin teen mother and carpenter. Christmas is Christ coming often unseen and unexpected into ordinary life. Yours and my ordinary and mundane life.
Perhaps as we open gifts with family and friends this Christmas season, in order to not miss the gifts of God because of our expectations, it might be helpful to pause and read Matthew 7.9-11
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Remember, if we can give loving and thoughtful gifts to one another, how much more then will our Father in heaven give us! This is why we give gifts at Christmas. They are poor reminders of Gifts of God for his people. May we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.