Gleaning
“Her mother-in-law asked her, ‘Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!’
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. ‘The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,’ she said.
’The LORD bless him!’ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. ‘He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.’ She added, ‘That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.’”
Today’s Text: Ruth 2:17-23 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
One way of looking at life is that every single one of us is a gleaner in this world. God is the Landowner—that is, the Earth. And we all glean from the abundance that God produces out of His land.
If only more people thought along those lines. Maybe there would be less war, less crime, less need to grab whatever you can. Do we remember the toilet paper crisis during COVID? Maybe our world would not be such a dog-eat-dog world. Maybe our world wouldn’t be such a rat race. What is all that about?
When I think about that question, I have to confess, I am often stumped and at a loss. On the one hand, I can feel that the answer is inside of me because I too have lived that life. On the other hand, saying the answers out loud makes me uncomfortable for some reason.
Here are some answers that we need to chew on as we look ourselves in the mirror.
We want to live in comfort according to the standards of the “The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”
We want to be able to go wherever we want and to do whatever we want whenever we want.
We don’t ever want anyone to be able to tell me-myself-and-i what I can do or what I can’t do.
For some people, their motivations rise to a higher level: I want to make a name for myself. And for many others, those motivations are justified by a neat package called “Doing it for the family.”
And I think that about covers it.
But the great irony is that, for people who scratch and claw and fight for the fruit of God’s Earth according to selfish motivations, they become impoverished with respect to the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—fruit that actually gives life and makes life really worth living.
Blessed be the Man who took notice of us. His name is Jesus, and we glean every day in His kingdom. He has never stopped demonstrating His hesed to the living and the dead. He wants to call us “brother” and “sisters.” He is our Kinsman-Redeemer, and He made the ultimate act of hesed on the cross to redeem our souls.
In living according to the motivations of most people, we fall prey to the devil. But by gleaning in the fields of Christ, we find eternal life.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
— John 10:10
Father, You are Hesed. You have given us everything we need to live and to thrive and to find Your shalom. Most of all, You have given us Yourself. You are our Reward. You are our shield. Why do some people just take and take from others as if they need it more than the others. We live in a broken, sinful world, and it must break Your heart tremendously. But we are Your people. Show us Your ways. Lead us into the path of eternal life. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
