Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!”
Ruth 2:20
Lesson for today:
NEVER DISCOUNT A BOOK OF THE BIBLE!!
Yes.
Some are pretty short.
Some of them are about women. (Oh no!!😲😂)
Some are insanely LONG,
And some are kind of complicated!
It’s funny how some of the books kind of fly under the radar…
Like Ruth.
I mean,
It’s no Genesis…
A page turner from creation to that crazy flood!
AND it’s no Exodus, with the Red Sea action packed thriller!
It’s also no Joshua, Daniel, the four Gospels, Acts, or Revelation!
In the book of Ruth, there are no huge miracles to be found.
No water turned to wine…
No feeding of 5,000 with the equivalent of a box of lunchables and a juice box…
Nothing really noteworthy happens here.
Until….
You take a closer look.
Naomi was a widow who lost more than most of us can even fathom.
A husband and her two precious sons.
Her given name meant “pleasant”.
Back then, your name meant EVERYTHING.
It defined who you were, and who you would become.
After she lost her husband and sons, she surrendered to the pain,
And gave herself
A new name…
Mara….
Which meant Bitterness.
First of all, let me just say…
We don’t get to choose our name!
Just as we don’t get to choose our stories!
GOD decides who we are,
And only HE chooses our narrative.
I’ve been so disappointed with His answer to all my prayers…
They felt like one giant”NO!”
But that wasn’t the case.
It wasn’t a “Wow!” kind of yes.
It wasn’t an eye-catching purple yes, or a bright fuscia yes.
Honestly , it was a tan or beige yes.
One of the lingering symptoms of my stroke is that I cannot see any neutral colors really well.
I can’t see the beige miracles, either.
But, friends, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
There is beauty in the basics.
There’s MAGIC in the mundane.
Provision in the midst of poverty.
There’s even hope in the hapless.
Don’t let your imagination define a miracle.
Naomi told her friends that she left her hometown “full”, but she was returning
“Empty.
But she didn’t see that Ruth
REMAINED!
Do you know what the name Ruth means??
It means
Friend.
She may have lost everybody else, but she still had a friend!
A decidedly beige miracle.
Ruth had a beige miracle, too.
Yes, she found a husband in Naomi’s town.
Beige.😊
But nice.
But she also became an integral part of the lineage to
Jesus Christ!!!
So.
Definitely ….
FUSCIA!!!!!!
There’s nothing beige about that.
Just as there is nothing run-of-the-mill
About Ruth.
There is nothing “beige” about what He is doing in each of our lives.
He has some AMAZING plans up His sleeve!
And I can’t wait to see what He will do with our beige little lives.
Back To The Beginning 
My husband would “argue” that there is a LOT in the book of Ruth and it’s not a “little” book. In fact, he would tell you the name should be Naomi instead of Ruth (personal opinion only😉). I’ve sat in on his teaching the book of Ruth several times to seminary students and it’s unbelievable how much depth it has. Personally, I think we’re all beige people with splashes of neon, bright colors in unique patterns specific to us and what God deigned us to live, endure, experience and be….😘🙏🏻❣️
The book of Ruth is a favorite for me!! It’s definitely one that we have to ponder. I agree that it’s God that designs the bright colors into our life. It’s only through all of His greatness that the “Beige” moments transform into the “Fucia” moments!
The beige makes the fuchsia so much more vibrant, Thank you.