Glean in this field

Ruth 2:9 My daughter, listen to me.  Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here.

Boaz’s field was the one where Naomi knew Ruth should work in because of his connection to her family, so Ruth was there, working.  Boaz had a kind heart, made obvious by these words to Ruth when he learned who she was.  Sometimes God uses other people’s wisdom to help us be in the right place and to stay there even though the staying might be difficult.  I often remember the wise counsel of a good friend when I was in one of those difficult places.  She suggested that I attend library school while I waited for God to give me clear direction as to my next step and recovered from a very emotionally difficult time.  Looking back, it was God’s way of directing me into my next step, one I probably would not have had to courage to take any other way.  Don’t go looking to change your location just because you are feeling like a stranger … the grass may seem greener on the other side of the fence but you can’t know it really is so stay where God puts you and wait to see what He has planned.  Ruth had no way of knowing at the time of that first encounter with Boaz that she would end up marrying him and thus becoming an ancestor of Jesus Himself.  If she had not stayed and gleaned in that field, her life would have ended up totally different.