Ruth 2:3    So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.

       

There is something that theologians talk about called ‘Providence' which is essentially about God's interaction with His world. Very often it appears almost as the ‘hidden hand' of God, virtually unseen, yet it leaves us wondering. We come across coincidences and we wonder. The key words in respect of this in our verse today are, “As it turned out.” We might say, “It just happened that….” as we then see a series of events unfolding which have monumental effect. That's what it's like here in this verse in this beautiful story.

 

Ruth is an alien who has come to Israel with her mother-in-law who belongs there but had left a while back with her husband. It is a sad story with men dying, leaving these women to fend for themselves. Boaz ‘just happens' to be part of the same tribe as Ruth's mother-in-law's husband and would therefore be one of those in line to look after her – but she doesn't know that.

It just so happens when she goes out looking for work, she finds herself in his field. Pure coincidence! Well we aren't told that God guided her there but it's a fairly reasonable assumption. All that follows has this feel about it. Ruth is about to join the family tree of the Messiah (see Mt 1:5) although, of course she doesn't know that. Perhaps this is God surreptitiously pointing out that He is happy to have other nations linked to the name of His Son. A big God concerned for all His world!

Watch for the 'coincidences' in your life, because so often the hand of God is not patently obvious to us, but it is only as we watch the 'coincidences' stack up that we realise He had been there, working behind the scenes, so to speak. The life of faith is not always as clear and obvious as we would naturally like it to be, but be assured the Lord IS for us (Rom 8:31) and He is there at work, whether we see Him or not (see Jn 5:17). By faith, thank Him for that.