Advent Devotion #4: Joy

Here we are…it is Christmas week! In the final, fourth chapter of Ruth, we see the Joy that results from Faith, Hope and Love. Making good on his promise to Ruth, Boaz meets with a nearer kinsman and offers him the right of redemption. When the man realizes that marrying Ruth is part of the deal, he declines. He is afraid that the union will jeopardize his own inheritance. One commentator said, “God did Boaz the honor to bring him into the line of the Messiah, while the kinsman, who was afraid of lessening himself, and marring his inheritance, has his name, family, and inheritance forgotten.”
Next, Boaz and Ruth are married. It is a household of joy, blessed with the birth of a son. Naomi, once despondent, depressed, hopeless, now busies herself caring for her grandbaby. At one time she told the other women her name was “Mara” (bitterness). Now the women make a prophetic statement to her: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age….” (Ruth 4:14,15) In the story of Ruth, we see that faith, hope, love and joy set in changed the course of history: “to Salmon was born Boaz, and to Boaz Obed, and to Obed was born Jesse, and to Jesse, David.” (Ruth 4:21, 22) These four qualities can do the same for us…they can be the road to changing the course of my history. This week, amid the shopping, wrapping, cooking, visiting, mailing, calling, and other doing, I hope that faith, hope, love and joy invade your life in a new and intimately personal way. Merry Christmas!
In closing, there are some thoughts I had in studying the Book of Ruth that I think are worth sharing.
• The Holy Spirit uses situations of hardship, difficulty, and losses in our lives to expose and/or exercise our faith.
• The Lord can use anyone to accomplish His purposes. There is no ethnic or social pedigree for a humble and trusting heart.
• Even a little faith, if we will act on it, is enough to make a huge difference.
• The blessing and provision of God is not dependent upon the culture around us.
• Clinging in fear to the past or the present may rob us of a future blessing.
• Entrusted to Jesus’ loving hands, even the most bitter of sorrows can be turned to joy.

May your Christmas find your heart at the scene of a manger in Bethlehem, where the King of glory laid aside His prestige and power and entered our world as a tiny baby. Together, I hope we rediscover the wonder of this miraculous event and celebrate in a new way the glorious gift of Jesus, the Savior, Messiah, and Kinsman Redeemer. Joy to the world! The Lord is come!