Looking into the Crystal Ball

“Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”  So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son” – Ruth 4:12-13

Throughout time God has been involved in the little things of romance and love.  If you have experienced love in your life, consider where God’s hand has been in it?  What brought the two of you together?  I look at my own love story and see the patience of the Lord in it.  I first met my wife after a high school dance.  She was the date of my best friend (Paul) and after the dance a group of us went to a local restaurant for cokes and to hang out.  During that event, Lisa spilled an entire coke down the front of my only suit.  Unbelievably apologetic she and I had our first real conversation, after all she was there with Paul.

Our second encounter came during a Volleyball game.  My girlfriend was on the high school team, and they were playing at another school about 30 minutes from our home town.  I called up Paul to go with me.  He showed up and Lisa was with him, so I piled into the back seat.  We made it to the game late and had missed the first set of the match, in which my girlfriend was playing.  She didn’t play in the second set, and as the third set was beginning I watched as she took the floor with her team.  Just then Paul leaned down and whispered in my ear, “We gotta leave, Lisa has a curfew of 9 o’clock and she can’t be late.”  Seriously?  I’m just about to watch my girlfriend play volleyball and we have to leave because his girlfriend has a curfew.  Imagine the look I got from my girlfriend as she watched me and my best friend walk out of the gymnasium that night.

Skip ahead 2 years.  Paul swings by to hang out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in June, 1985.  We hop in his car and cruise through town a few times listening to Credence Clearwater Revival and the Beachboys cassette tapes, when he pulls into Lisa’s driveway.  I give him a curious look, “What’s up?” He and Lisa hadn’t been dating for a few years, but had remained friends all along.  “I just want to stop in and say hi.  No big deal.”   Well, he was my ride and I had nothing better going on that day.  We went inside and exchanged hello’s with Lisa and her friend, before they proceeded down the hall, leaving Paul and I sitting at the kitchen table drinking Mountain Dew.  When they came out, you could say the rest is history.  Lisa was stunning when she came back down the hallway.  Paul recommended we all pile in his car and hang out for the day. 

From that night; June 29, 1985, Lisa and I have been together.  We were married 2 years later, and God has blessed us with 5 incredible children, two awesome sons-in-law and 5 beautiful grand children over the last 34 years.  Did God have all of this in mind when Lisa spilled coke on my new suit after that Christmas dance in 1982?  Does Paul realize that he was part of God’s incredible plan of creating this wonderful family who live for the Lord? 

God’s hand was definitely in the marriage of Boaz and Ruth.  Ruth was born a Moabite, a natural enemy to the Israelites of that time.  She married into the Israeli family of Naomi.  An accident took the lives of her husband, as well as her Father-in-law (Naomi’s husband).  This left Naomi and Ruth widows together.  Tragic as this was, God had a plan.  Because she was not Israeli, Ruth was not obligated to remain with Naomi.  She chose to though, out of love and compassion for this woman who had become like a mother to her.  Ruth traveled with Naomi back to Bethlehem, her home-town.  There, through the work of God’s hand and Namoi’s persuasion Ruth meets Boaz.  In due time they receive the blessing to be married and God’s plan begins to take shape.  For you see, from this couple came a son named Obed.  In Matthew 1 and in Luke 3 we see the following lineage laid out for us: “Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.”

From a Moabite woman, widowed at a young age, with a heart and compassion for serving the needs of her mother-in-law; God brought forth the grand-father of King David.  From King David we are unbelievably blessed as a people who serve God the Father.  Through his lineage came the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and our eternal salvation.  As a widow, she felt lost and alone and needed the companionship of Naomi.  As a mother, she set in motion the events that would forever change the world.  All unbeknownst to her, but all within the Sovereign planning of the Lord.  As you look at the one you love today, realize that God brought you together for a purpose to change the world.  You may not ever live to see the result, but great things will happen for those that are within His will.

 

Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
We do not always see Your ways unfold before us.  We are blind by emotions and feelings that cloud our perspective.  Yet in the midst of our confusion and chaos or emotion, Your finger is at work.  You bring two people together for Your purpose and change the world, because it is within Your will to do so.  Bless us in our relationships and bless the Mothers as they raise strong Godly children in today’s world.  In Your name we pray – Amen

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