Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Kind (10/17/24)
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TITLE: A Whisper of Life | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
10/23/24 -
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The shawl she’d brought to store her gleanings in lay half-full at the edge of the field. Hardly enough for her mother-in-law, mourning at home. Hardly enough for a child if she’d had one. Being a widow sucked her soul dry as much as the sun evaporated the hope from her heart and the moisture from her mouth.
The harvesters were kind but the experienced women ahead of her snatched almost every loose head of grain, leaving her to scavenge like an ant for any stray morsel. She’d left everything in faith, believing that her calling drew her toward the unknown in support of the one bitter woman who claimed her as family. What was she thinking? What was she hoping for?
Gleaning. Was this what life would be like day after day? Alone? Stressing? Aching? Fighting for survival? She straightened, stretching out her back, rotating her shoulders, flexing her fingers. Wiping the grime from her face. Where was the God of this land? Did he notice her, struggling so hard?
Perhaps another field would yield more. She eyed the stone jars in the shelter brimming with water and then forced her eyes to look back into the dirt. Only those who belonged here would be free to nourish themselves from the master’s resources. Of one thing she was sure. She didn’t belong. Why had she come?
The arrival of a newcomer drew her attention. A middle-aged man, confident, well-dressed, cheerful, and known by the harvesters who gathered around him. After a brief interaction, he nodded in her direction and she bent again, tracking for any lost stalks.
He was clearly the owner. Would he reject her? Perhaps she’d said too much. She reviewed her conversation with the overseer when she’d been confronted. “Who are you?” “Ruth, widow, daughter-in-law of Naomi and Elimelek.” “Where do you come from? Your accent gives you away.” “Moab. Please let me glean behind the harvesters. We have nothing.” “It’s our law and custom to let you gather what you can find.” “Thank you.”
She tucked a stray stalk under her arm and noticed the shadow. His shadow. She went to her knees, head down. Would he chase her away despite the law and custom of the land?
His tone was gentle, a whisper of life. “My daughter, listen to me. I am Boaz. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
This kindness was sweeter than running water, more welcome than a gentle rain. “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me – a foreigner?”
“I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband – how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
What was he saying? Because she had shown kindness to Naomi who belonged here then this man would show kindness to her who didn’t belong? “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant – though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”
“Come with me,” he said. “Eat and drink all you want with my people. Take the leftovers home to your mother-in-law. My men will be leaving enough for all you will need. Take whatever you want from the stalks and the field.”
Ruth 2
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With your permission, I would like to copy this and read it whenever we study the book of Ruth.