The Details

This is the first Saturday in two weeks I haven't worked and I am enjoying every minute of it. I slept in, have watched lots of Fox News and College GameDay, spent some time in the word and listening to sermons... overall a pretty successful morning. I decided to listen to a couple of sermons (or parts) that are a part of a series I had heard earlier in the summer. The pastor walked through the book of Ruth and was able in a magnificent way to bring the story alive and provide some very applicable points. I have to take these sermons in parts because they are packed full of great information. Well, today I was really struck by several points as he walked through the first part of Ruth chapter 2. The one I want to share with you is about "The Details."

As an event planner, I am only as successful as the many special details I create at an event. My Mom is the same way. She truly believes that her business is successful because of the details they attend to and create. She taught me long ago that the big picture any one can do, but it is the details that complete a finished product and a lasting impression. The details are important.

In chapter 2, Ruth has chosen to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi, of her deceased husband, back to the land of their people. The start of chapter 2 they have arrived in Bethlehem and Ruth is wanting to find work.

"And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor." Naomi said to her, "Go ahead, my daughter." 3 So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech."

Now for those who are not familiar with the story Elimelech is Naomi's deceased husband and was Ruth's father-in-law. The passage reads, "As it turned out," she was picking grain in the field of one of her distant relatives. It sounds lucky or by chance, but really the Lord found purpose in the details. He placed her in Boaz's field. All this rambling to say, the Lord is involved in the intricate details of our lives. I found that so comforting this morning. He is very aware of the big picture but also about the little things. We don't have to "Sweat the small stuff," He does it for us. Just as the details of an event are important, so are the details of our lives. The Lord cares, and is involved in them all.

"O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD." Psalm 139:1-4