Ruth 4:18-22: a reflection

18Now this is the history of the generations of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron, 19and Hezron became the father of Ram, and Ram became the father of Amminadab, 20and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon became the father of Salmon, 21and Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed, 22and Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David.

The book of Ruth, a quiet, tender story of a widowed foreigner and her loyalty, and of Boaz's kindness, ends with a genealogy that suddenly reveals how large this small story really was. It traces the line from Perez down through Boaz and Ruth's son Obed, to Jesse, and finally to David, the king of Israel. The humble Moabite woman who gleaned in a field became the great-grandmother of King David, and, the New Testament shows, an ancestor of the Messiah himself. A small, ordinary story turns out to have been woven into God's great redemptive purpose.

Notice how the quiet faithfulness of ordinary people became part of something vast. Ruth and Boaz were not kings or prophets; they were ordinary people living out loyalty, kindness, and faithfulness in the small circumstances of their lives. They could not have known that their story would run into the line of David, and of Christ. Their ordinary faithfulness was, unknown to them, part of God's great redemptive story.

That is a quiet encouragement about our own ordinary lives. We may feel that our lives are small and unremarkable, our faithfulness hidden and inconsequential, lived out in obscure circumstances that could not matter much. But Ruth's story reminds us that God weaves ordinary, faithful lives into purposes far larger than we can see. Your quiet faithfulness, your ordinary obedience and kindness, may be part of something far greater than you know. Do not despise your small and ordinary life; live it faithfully, and trust that God can weave even an obscure, ordinary story into his great purposes, as he wove Ruth's into the line of the Messiah.

Lord, the quiet story of Ruth, a widowed foreigner, and Boaz's kindness, ends by revealing that they stood in the line of David, and of the Messiah himself; their ordinary faithfulness was woven into your great purpose without their knowing. When my own life feels small and unremarkable, my faithfulness hidden and inconsequential, remind me of Ruth. You weave ordinary, faithful lives into purposes far larger than we can see. Help me not to despise my small and ordinary life, but to live it faithfully, in loyalty, kindness, and obedience, trusting that you can weave even an obscure story into your great redemptive purpose. Let my quiet faithfulness be part of something greater than I know, and use my ordinary life for your ends.