Ruth 2 - t

I've been struggling to keep consistent with this lately.  It seems that life has become EXTREMELY busy.

I really like the book of Ruth.  I think the first time I read it,....it seemed like an odd-ball to me.  It doesn't really fit with the books around it.
This time, something else hit me.  I think its more about how we treat each other.  Its less about God interacting directly with the Israelite people, and more about their personal interaction.  Maybe a better way to say it is.....we love each other because God loves us.

Ruth stayed committed to Naomi, even when she probably didn't need to.  She followed her back to her homeland, which was a foreign place to her. 
Boaz treated Ruth with respect, when he found her in his fields.  It reads as if woman in the field were often treated very poorly.......it states they sometimes needed protection.

This reminds me of a story I just heard a couple of months back.  I was at a Halloween party, talking to a guy that owns a christian bookstore in a very rough part of downtown Detroit.  I asked him if he had a problem with shoplifters.  His response surprised me.  He said, "Yup, but I don't try to stop them......I treat it like the grain left in the row."  That's a completely different mind-set than most of corporate America.  We at GM are highly driven by squeezing every penny of profit margin out of every sale.  This guy is trusting in God to provide him with enough sales to cover the cost of the people that can't pay.
I think that's pretty cool........and unusual.