Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: KINDNESS (11/04/21)
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TITLE: Heading Home to Hesed | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laurie Kiel
11/10/21 -
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(WOMAN IN REGULAR GARB ADDRESSES THE AUDIENCE)
Whatever happened to kindness?! Recently, at the end of a magic trick on a national talent show, everyone in the audience held up a sign that said "Be kind." We seek kindness because sometimes it's nowhere to be found. There's certainly no kindness on the freeway, trying to get a fellow motorist to let me in seems to be a miracle like having the Red Sea parted.
"Whatever happened to kindness, Lord?" I ask Him.
And it's as if I heard Him say, "Follow the example of Ruth and Boaz." Ruth? I have heard about Ruth and hesed, the Hebrew word for kindness. I wonder what it would have been like to be Ruth.
(PUTS ON A BIBLICAL HEADDRESS)
It's time to go to the corners of Boaz's field to see what grain the harvesters left behind so that Naomi and I will have something to eat. Hopefully, his harvesters didn't do too good of a job and have left wheat behind.
Oh my! Either Boaz has the laziest harvesters in all of Bethlehem or he is the kindest man in Bethlehem. I think I know which is true.
Boaz had said to me on an earlier day when he first found me gleaning in his field, "You have been so kind to Naomi." Have I been? How could I not? Any kindness grows out of my grateful heart. Naomi is the mother I never had. I am so grateful. She taught me hesed and now like a mirror I reflect it back to her. Hesed begets hesed.
Hesed. Naomi told me to watch where Boaz lies down after his day of work and then to uncover his feet and lie down. Lying at the feet of a man would not have been something I would have dared to do in Moab.
I trust Boaz's kindness. Even more I trust Naomi's kindness and most of all I trust Jehovah's kindness. Unlike the gods of Moab, He is not a God that demands child sacrifice. He is not a God who would take pleasure in temple priestesses being violated.
Kindness was such a foreign concept to my sister-in-law Orpah and me, our minds couldn't comprehend it. Hesed, kindness. We didn't even know of any word like that in the Moabite language. Kindness would have been considered weakness.
Naomi finally explained it this way. Kindness is like a cool wind that unexpectedly starts blowing on a hot summer day. Kindness is like finding a cave on a frigid winter's day so I can warm my hands over a fire, safe from the attacks of the weather. Kindness is like a spring rain that comes out of nowhere and saves the dying crops so we can feed our stomachs. Kindness fills our hearts the way the crops fill our stomachs.
As Naomi explained hesed, a light dawned in my mind and I finally understood. Orpah never could understand, despite how many times Naomi and I tried to explain it to her. Hesed made no sense to her. She never understood hesed so she had no reason to head for it.
When Naomi told Orpah and me that we should give up going to Bethlehem with her and to go home. Orpah gave up and went back to Moab, a city without hesed. And I headed to the home of hesed with Naomi.
And now I have my kinsman-redeemer, my Boaz to show me hesed, to be my husband.
Hesed, the word flows through my soul. The Lord has indeed shown kindness, hesed, to me.
(TAKES OFF THE HEADDRESS)
Hesed begets hesed. Ruth headed to the home of hesed. There she found her kinsman-redeemer Boaz.
Thanks to Jesus, my kinmsan-redeemer, I don’t need to head home to hesed. I’m already here. Hesed, the word flows through my soul. The Lord has indeed shown kindness, hesed, to me. Time for hesed to beget hesed.
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