One-degree shifts

I have been thinking about the story of Ruth. It is a book in which God does not speak directly, yet His hand of grace is the driving force behind the entire story.

The story starts out as a tragedy. Naomi and Ruth are widows. They leave Moab to return to Israel to escape a famine. Ruth is a Moabite. Moabites were a product of incest, the offspring of Lot and his older daughter (Genesis 19:37). They were a much-despised people group which God had explicitly banned from joining the congregation of worshippers (Deuteronomy 23:3-6). I wonder how Ruth felt, as she followed her aged mother-in-law back to a land where she was despised and rejected…and at a time when judges ruled the land, which we know was a time of rampant lawlessness, sin and moral degeneration. As a woman, a widow, and a Moabite, Ruth would have been totally vulnerable, without any security or protection to fall back on.

Against that backdrop, we read these words -

And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech…(2:3)

It is a mere coincidence that she arrives at Boaz’s field. A random event, unplanned, purely circumstantial. But we know that behind the scenes, a divine Author is at work, crafting a narrative that will eventually result in the birth of David, from whose lineage a Saviour would arise. For now, the human actors have no clue. Ruth certainly doesn’t.

I look back at my life in recent months, and I see the same Author at work, turning seemingly random acts propelled by a decision in a moment in time, into critical defining moments that change the direction of my life.

A decision to show up to meet someone, when I could turn it down with any excuse. We then become good friends.

A decision to text and reach out when feeling lonely, instead of keeping it all to myself. I end up embraced by a big, loving family.

A decision to put aside my work and show up at a meeting just to express my support for a friend. At that event, I meet someone who reaches out and invites me into a mentoring relationship.

Little decisions like these have been like small, one-degree shifts in the orientation of my heart and being, that over time, have led me down a totally different trajectory filled with unexpected blessings.

We who live in time cannot fathom what the timeless One is doing, moment by moment. But we can be sure that He is kind and loving, and His wisdom beyond our comprehension. When we make one decision in time and space, to honour Him who is timeless and transcendent, He breaks into our situation and gently steers us to make that one-degree shift which over the course of a thousand faithful steps, leads us out of our own desolation into a place of beauty that our broken hearts never thought we could ever get to.