When Life Doesn’t Turn Out the Way You Thought: Insight from the Book of Ruth

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Kelly Minter
Father, we thank you for this time. God, we thank you for this space that you have set aside for us in this time, in this day. Lord, I am very grateful that I am here, that we are here, and that we can pour over the book of Ruth this afternoon, and we can reflect on the powerful reality that when life does not work out the way that we hoped, we serve a redeeming God who can redeem absolutely anything, and we thank you for your powerful and strong hand. We thank you for your presence, Lord. We, we thank you that your spirit is going to flow through this time and flow through your word, God, and is going to minister to our hearts and is going to speak exactly what you want us to hear today, and we will give you praise, and we will give you thanks, and we pray it all in the very precious name of our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay, so we’ve got when life doesn’t work out the way that you thought or the way that you hoped, and I was when I first saw that up on the screen, and thought I thought, well, that’s kind of a depressing title, like who came up with that title, and then I realized I’m pretty sure I did several months ago when they asked me to title my own breakout, but this is the reality in the book of Ruth, and I wish we had several hours together, and we could go through the whole thing. And since, for good thank goodness for your sake, we don’t have that much time, and I’ve got this big clock that’s ticking down, so I’m going to stick to it, but we’re going to, we’re going to do a little bit of a bird’s eye kind of fly over the book of Ruth, mostly following Naomi, we could follow Nay, we could follow Naomi, we could follow Ruth, we could follow Orpah, we could follow Boaz, certainly, but, but in this particular day, if for this particular theme, we really want to look at Naomi, because even though life did not look the way that Ruth thought it would look, or that Orpa thought it would look. It definitely did not look the way that Naomi thought it would look. And so we’re going to kind of trail along behind her this afternoon, but I want to read the first six verses, and then I’m going to pause for just a moment, but I want to set the stage with these first six verses out of the book of Ruth, and we’re in chapter one, and can I just say that I’m very grateful that when it’s when it’s the Gospel Coalition Women’s Conference, I know everybody’s, they’ve, they’ve like got their Bibles, they’re ready to go, so I love that about you people. So I’m glad to be here. Ruth one one, during the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land, a man left Bethlehem and Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Killian. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem and Judah. They entered the fields of Moab, and settled there. Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons. Her sons took Moabite women as their wives. One was named Orpah, and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about 10 years, both Mahlon and Killian also died, and Naomi was left without her two children, and without her husband, verse six, she and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to his people’s need by providing them food. So I want to just begin by recognizing that this happens during the time of the judges. Now, I don’t know if you happen to have your quiet time this morning in the book of Judges.

Kelly Minter
Come on, you guys are gospel coalition people, that’s supposed to be kind of true of you, but, but listen, the judges, we knew it was chaotic, there was so much degradation, things were spinning out of control in judges, it was a very, very difficult time, and God continued to raise up people who would, who would, who would judge or oversee, and while everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes, God would bring necessary, gracious, loving punishment on them, so that they would turn back to the Lord, and so we can most pretty well surmised that the reason that there was a famine in Bethlehem was because at this point in Israel’s history, most likely they were off doing what they saw fit in their own eyes to do, and so God had allowed there to be a famine in the land, which is really an oxymoron, because Bethlehem means house of bread, so there’s a famine. In the house of bread, this is not the way it’s supposed to go. This is not how life is supposed to look, and, and so Elimelech, who is this, you know, we have it seems to be a God-fearing Hebrew man, and he looks over at the green grass of Moab, which was an incredibly, you know, enemy nation, so many terrible things going on in that nation with false gods and and child sacrifice and all kinds of terrible things, but a limelettes, like, hey, I’ve got two sons and I have a wife and there’s no food here, and so we’re going to Moab, and most, at least evangelical scholars believe that that was not where he was supposed to go, that even though life was hard where he was at, it was better to be in the place of God’s choosing, where God was dwelling, than it was to go and be elsewhere, even if there was not a famine in Moab at the time, and so they get up, they pack up, and they go over there, and then when they get to Moab, we don’t know how long, but at some point Elimelech passes away. So Naomi’s main source of sustenance, you know, back in that time society where the men carried on the family name, where the men provided, and so she loses her husband, but then it’s like, okay, at least she has two sons that are going to take care of her, and then we see that the two of them also die, and this is right at the top of the book. The stage is set for how terrible, awful, not the way that that Naomi could have ever imagined life would have gone. She’s in a foreign land, and her husband has died, and her two sons have died. Now I remember, gosh, I can’t remember when I wrote a study on the book of Ruth, and I want to say it was maybe in 2010 or something. It was a long time ago, and I was speaking on this, and I was going through the book of Ruth. I can’t remember what state of the country I was in, and I was speaking on chapter one on a Friday, and then I was taking chapters two through four on a Saturday in two sessions. And so a friend of mine was traveling with me at the time, and after we had wrapped the whole session, we got in the car and headed back to the airport, and I said, How did you, how did you think it went? And by the way, if you’re a speaker, just don’t ask your friends how they think about stuff, and so she goes, well, she goes, it was good, I mean, it was good, but she said, Kelly, Friday night, chapter one, I mean, that is just tough, it is just a tough, it’s hard, it’s sad, and it’s hard, and and she said, these women, they come on a Friday night, and they’re tired, they’ve driven a long way, they try to get off work, or they left their kids at home, and they’re just coming in, and then it’s just.. it was sad. I mean, it got better on Saturday, but Friday was.. and I looked at her, and I was like, I did not write this story. I cannot help it that three people die in the first five verses. Like, I..

Kelly Minter
this is what do you want me to do? So, I just want to let you guys know that if you’re down right now, just give it about 35 minutes, because we’re going to get there in the whole thing, but truly, truly, what do we do with this kind of loss, with this kind of disappointment, with this kind of disillusionment when we are someone that claims to follow the one true God, and things are falling apart, like absolutely falling apart, and there’s devastation and there’s loss. Well, praise God for verse six, that from the land of Moab it says that they heard Naomi heard about the grace of God that had visited Bethlehem, and that food was being provided, that the famine had been lifted, and God had come to the aid of His people, and don’t miss that they heard that in Moab. Don’t miss that in this dark place, where they’re not supposed to be, that is far away from where they’re supposed to be, that is a pagan nation, a pagan territory, that there Naomi hears about the grace of God. And also, don’t miss that this is before you could put it on Instagram. This is, it’s not on the news, nobody’s writing a letter. I don’t know how, I don’t know how she finds out that God had come to the aid of her people, but but hear the gospel ringing, hear it ring out in a dark place, because God could have said, you know what, Elimelech and Naomi, they should have never gone there in the first place, and I’m only coming back for the people who stayed, and no, that reaches their ears in Moab, and so both Ruth and Orpah, who had married her two sons, which, that’s no small matter, because Hebrew men were not supposed to be marrying Moabite women at the time. And this is really, I mean, when you talk about life’s not looking the way it’s not, I mean, or the way you thought it would, that nothing about this story looks the way that you would think it would, and yet they decide we’re gonna go back to Bethlehem with you, well, not back, Naomi’s going back, but the two of them, it’s the first time, and so they’re like, we’re gonna go, we’re going to go back with you to this place, and I want you to see how disillusioned, how distraught, how disoriented Naomi is at this moment, because she’s got her two daughters-in-law that want to accompany her to Bethlehem, the place of her people, the place where God dwells. And look what she says in verses 11 through 15. She says, But Naomi replied to them, Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight, and to bear sons, would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me again. They wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother in law, but Ruth clung to her. Naomi said, “Look, your sister in law has gone back to her people and to her gods. follow your sister-in-law. I mean, Naomi is so broken, so her spirit is broken, so disillusioned. She doesn’t even know what she believes about God anymore, because when these two Moabite women, Ruth and Warpa, are wanting to follow her to Bethlehem. She says, “No, you stay here, and here’s why. She says this: she says, “Because she essentially says, ‘I’m your only hope in this kind of a society. The only hope you have is if you’re married, and if a man can take care of you, and there’s no way you’re gonna get a Hebrew man to marry one of you as Moabite women, so I’m your only hope. And she basically is saying, I’m too old, I’m too old. Even if I were to get married tonight and have sons tonight, you would have to wait for them to grow up to marry them. I mean, the whole thing is weird, right?

Kelly Minter
When you really look at it, it’s all just crazy. But what Naomi is saying is, I’m your only hope, and I’m no hope at all. I’m your only hope, and I’m no hope at all. You It, and maybe today, maybe this weekend, you came here because the light of hope seems to be getting eclipsed, and the author of Ruth wants you to feel that in this story, it, the sun is quickly dropping behind the horizon, and it doesn’t seem like anybody can do anything to stop it, and the tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny bit of hope that these women have in Naomi, Naomi saying no hope at all, and then we really get to the to the bottom, to the core. She says the Lord’s hand has turned against me. Now we’re going to dig into that just a little bit more, but Naomi is equating her difficult circumstances with who God is, and you can’t do that. We cannot do that. We cannot determine who God is or what His character is like based solely on our circumstances, but all Naomi is going on is her circumstances right now, and she’s like, “Listen, there was famine in the land, we got out of the land, then I lost my husband, then I lost my two sons. Obviously, clearly, undeniably, God’s hand has gone out against me. But I want to ask you, is that a true statement, is that a true statement? Was God’s hand extended against Naomi? I think the answer lies at the end of the book. And thank goodness we don’t have to get. Or tomorrow get there in 28 minutes and 51 seconds, but some of you are living the heart, you’re living the heart, and I don’t want to spend much time on Orpah or Ruth, even though, like, I love Ruth so much. I do want to just note that when Naomi says, “Go back to your gods, little G gods, she’s essentially saying, “The one true God has let me down. He has broken my heart. It is not what I thought. He didn’t do what I thought. You might as well go back to the little G gods. And in our culture, I don’t know what that is for you. Go back to the old way of life, go back to the addiction, go back to the bad boyfriend, go back to the wild living, go back to more Netflix, go back to more scrolling on the internet, go back to spending more money at the mall. I don’t know, but she says those are familiar. Just go back there, maybe, maybe, maybe the one true God will, will show you hesed covenant loyalty, and and so Orpah turns back. She goes back to Moab. Ruth says, “No, I’m not doing that. And there’s that beautiful passage. She says, “Don’t plead with me to abandon you. Don’t you know where ever you go, I will go. Where you live. I will live. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die will die, and there I will be buried. And you know, we hear that read at weddings so often. And I love it at weddings. If I ever get married, maybe, maybe that will be in my wedding. But I just want us all to remember that Ruth is saying this, not about this attractive, you know, bridegroom that she’s about to marry, and about to jump on a plane for a honeymoon, she is saying this to her bitter mother-in-law. You guys are supposed to laugh at that. This is like this incredible commitment to this woman, is she’s she’s not happy right now, and we’re going to a foreign place, and hurt people, and all that stuff, but Ruth says, I’m in. I want your God to be my God, and this is what I’m doing. But I want you to notice that there is a lot of weeping in this, in this particular chapter one, and in verse eight they weep, all three of them. In verse 14, they weep, all three of them – Naomi, Orpa, Ruth – they’re all weeping, because you know what, they’re all in pain, every single one of them. For every single one of them, not one of them has life worked out the way that they thought.

Kelly Minter
It hasn’t worked out for Ruth, she lost her husband, hasn’t worked out for Orpah, she lost her husband, and it really hasn’t worked out for Naomi, but they’re all in pain, and they’re all weeping, and Orpah weeps backward away from the one true God, she weeps backward to everything that was familiar, back to the old vices, back to the old false gods, back to the old temporary bombs, elixirs, Ruth weeps forward, Naomi reluctantly weeps forward, weeps in the direction of the one true God. And so I want to ask you today, and it’s a question I’ve asked myself over and over, is that wherever you are in your life circumstance, however, life has not worked out the way that you thought, which way are you weeping? You can weep. We need to weep. We need to lament. There are some hard things that require that kind of response. The question not is not whether you will weep, it’s what direction will you weep in. And Orpah weeps back toward Moab, and Ruth and Naomi weep toward Bethlehem, weep toward the one true God. But for Naomi, Naomi was still struggling with the Lord. In fact, when she gets back through the gates of Bethlehem, I believe it had been something like 12 years or something. It says that the women recognized her, and they said, “Could this be Naomi? Now, I always love the women are unnamed in this whole book, but they appear here, they appear at the end, and it’s.. it’s a great thing, because you don’t have. Know who the women are, because we know who the women are. It’s the women, it’s the peeps, it’s the.. it’s like the church ladies, you know what I’m saying? It’s the women, it’s the women that, when you come back around, they’re like, oh my goodness, like.. like, look, the men aren’t like, “Hey, is Naomi back? The women, we know exactly who they are, and they come running out of their homes and out of the marketplace, or whatever, and they, they say, they say, “Oh, the local women, can this be Naomi? Can this be, and her name means lovely or pleasant, and you gotta love some Naomi, because she just says back to them, don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara, which means bitter. How’d you like to be living with her over the next however long? Don’t call me that, call me, she’s renamed herself, call me bitter. She answered, Okay, are you ready for this? For the Almighty has made me very bitter, so she’s putting her life’s disappointments on God. She’s placing it to His account. She’s calling out on the right God. Lee, she’s not back in Moab with Shamash or whoever else, but the Almighty. Look at the conclusion. Look at where her mind is. The Almighty has made my life bitter. Is that a, is that a real statement? Has she gone through bitter circumstances? Yes, has she gone through bitter loss? Yes, she gone through bitter trial. Yes, but has the Lord God made her life bitter? That’s a question for you to answer, but she, she then she says, though, and this, this is 100% a false statement. She says, I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Ruth 121 This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, because she’s saying to the women, the church ladies, the God fearers, the people, her people, God almighty, the one in control, the sovereign one. He took me out of here full. I went out full with my husband and my two sons, and he has brought me back empty. And I just want you to remember who is standing right next to her when she says that Ruth is like, thanks. Did you not hear my whole soliloquy, Naomi? My whole, like, your god’s gonna be my god. I’m gonna, I’m gonna die. Besides, like, I’m here for you. She sees Ruth as emptiness. What can a Moabite us? What can a Moabite us do? What can a Popeitis do? How can God possibly bring redemption? I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.

Kelly Minter
Well, we know that statement’s not right, but again, when we determine who God is and what His character is like based on our circumstances, we will be sorely, sorely wrong about Him, and I want to invite you today that no matter what it is that you’re going through, no matter what you have just come out of, or what you are facing, that you would weep in the direction of the Lord, and that you would let His revealed word and His Holy Spirit in you reveal to you who he is, and that you would not let your circumstances dictate that, because we do not see the way the Lord sees. She is looking at three Hebrew men, family members that she lost, and, and, and then she is looking at Ruth and Moabitess, and she’s saying, I was full, and now I’m empty. Well, in chapter two.. well, sorry, actually, at the end of 20.. at the end of chapter one, I guess there weren’t chapter divisions back in the Hebrew Bible, but let’s just pretend that it says verse 22 at the end it says that they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest, and I just want you to know that the narrator, the author of this, is really wanting us to just breathe in the tiniest bit of hope. Oh, they got there right at the top, not in the middle of the harvest, not at the end. They got there right as the barley harvest was beginning. God’s mercy, his grace, it’s slight, it’s slight, but as we’re reading the story, we should start to feel like we needed that, we needed one piece of good news, something that God’s doing that worked out. We got here at the top, you know, we didn’t arrive midway, we didn’t arrive at the end, got here at the top. And then in verse two of chapter two, it says that Ruth the Moabitess asked Naomi, will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain behind someone with whom I find favor, and I just want you to note that she is now referred to as Ruth the Moabitess. Now she is in chapter one, just Ruth, but again the storyteller wants us to understand that as soon as Ruth, as the Moabitess, walks into the territory of Bethlehem, she is now labeled Ruth the Moabitess. She’s got this tag on her that’s going to be hard for her to get loose. The author wants us to see that it is so unlikely that God could use this situation, this person in Naomi’s life to bring about redemption. This is just the most unlikely person in the world. In fact, just a moment ago, Naomi was shooing her back, shoeing possibly, possibly because she did not want to walk into Bethlehem and see the church women for them to find out that her two Hebrew sons had married Moabite women. God’s going to use all of it. And so you all hopefully, I wish we could go through the whole story, but hopefully you know some of the story that in chapter two this incredible man named Boaz enters the scene. Where has he been all my life? I don’t know. Yeah, I’m still waiting to happen upon this field. Boaz, he’s so good, he’s such a good guy, you just love him in the story, but he takes care of Ruth and gives her a place to glean and treats her with such dignity and respect, and it’s just so caring, and invites her to his table, incredible the way he looks after her, and she even says to him, in verse 10 of chapter two, “Why have you noticed me, a foreigner? She says, “I’m a foreigner. It, she, she doesn’t even understand. She falls down to the ground and says, “Why would you even take notice of me? I’m left.. I don’t even have the standing of one of your servant girls. I don’t even have the standing of a servant girl. I’m a foreigner. I’m from Moab. And then Boaz goes, “Oh, I’ve already heard everything about you that you’ve done for Naomi, how you left your homeland. I’ve heard all about you. I have your story. And then he says this incredible verse, and I just hope that this washes over you. This is Ruth 212 May the Lord.. this is the..

Kelly Minter
this is Yahweh. This is not the God of Moab, of course He’s the God of all nations, but this is not the God that Moab would have recognized. And so He’s saying this is the Hebrew God. This is may Yahweh reward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel. Are you ready for this? Under whose wings you have come for refuge. Let’s just look at the gospel in Ruth 212 This is like the whole, like it’s all wrapped up that Ruth the Moabitess gets to take refuge under the wings of the God of Israel. Do you reform people say amen ever? I’m teasing you guys, you know you’re my, you’re my peeps right here. I just need a little something. I’m on, I’m on fire. I mean, the Moabitess, Ruth, the Moabitess, she gets, she gets to take refuge under the wings of the God of Israel. This is not supposed to be right, right? This is not supposed to, this is not how it’s supposed to be, the gospel, the gospel right here tucked away, and no matter how it has turned out for you, no matter what you’ve gone through, I just want you to hear it. I want you to hear it. You are invited to take refuge a. To the wings of the one true God, how much more now that we have been introduced to the person of Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit has been shed abroad in our hearts. So she takes refuge, so all of this is going on. We see Ruth is coming to the, to the saving knowledge of the one true God. She’s worshiping Him. She’s, she’s taking on the identity of the people. I mean, she’s immersing herself. Amazing. Then, in chapter three, it’s an incredible story. There’s all kinds of stuff that goes on, and Naomi basically says, at one point, like, hey, you know, Boaz is one of our kinsmen redeemers, and so I think you should get that, probably widow’s clothing. We don’t know for sure, but probably she was in widow’s clothing, but you got to get all that field harvest stuff, like, off, you got to get a new outfit on, you got to put on some perfume, and you’ve got to go down to the threshing floor, where Boaz is going to be tonight, and this is a really crazy ask of Naomi, because this is not like, hey, you need to go down to the First Baptist Church at the Friday pizza night and see if you meet a nice guy. I mean, this is this is a crazy thing that’s happening here, and we won’t, we don’t, I don’t have enough time to get into all that, but but she goes down there and she just lays herself out at the I want to say at the feet of Boaz, but I really believe in some ways just at the feet of God. She’s been hurt, she’s been wounded, but she says, “Will you redeem me? And by asking Boaz to redeem her, she’s basically saying, “Will you redeem Naomi? Because if Ruth gets redeemed, then Naomi gets redeemed, and everything about her property and her son’s legacies, and everything, all of that gets redeemed, and many scholars believe that Ruth had had Naomi on her mind as much as she had herself on her mind in that ask, and so, of course, Boaz, you know, he says, I want to redeem you, but there’s a, there’s a kinsman redeemer that is, is closer than I am, and so then Boaz has to go and negotiate and do all this stuff, and eventually that that man relinquishes, and it’s a whole story in and of itself, but we get finally to chapter four, and I want to just wrap with these few verses, verses 13 through 16, and and I won’t read verse 13, and it says Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. He slept with her, and the Lord granted conception to her, and she gave birth to a son.

Kelly Minter
And I do just want to say that we do not know who wrote the book of Ruth, but I know for a fact it was a man because of verse 13, because we have been waiting the entire story for this moment, and he puts a marriage, a conception, and a birth in one verse, and you could say that he is a guy that’s just like short on detail. Oh, no, no, no. We know how many kilograms of barley people were able to carry around in this book, and we get essentially nothing here. It’s like, oh yeah, by the way, they get married, and God grants her her wish, and she has a beset. Okay. Verse 14. The women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord. Are you ready for this? Who has not left you without a family redeemer today? May His name become well known in Israel, he will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. Indeed, your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him. Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap and became his nanny, so we have this kinsman redeemer that is actually not Boaz at this point in the story. Obed, the son, the child is named as the kinsman redeemer who will be the one who will renew and sustain Naomi’s life, but what I love is that the women, again, here’s the women, they’re back here, and they say, Naomi, don’t you get it, Naomi’s got this child in her arms, and they say, don’t you see, God has not left you without, in the Hebrew, it is a double negative, He has not left you without, and he has not done the thing that you were afraid he was going to do. Amen. Right, the Lord’s hand has gone against me. Oh, the Lord brought me out full, and now He’s brought me back empty. See, she was interpreting everything with what she could see. With her bare eyes and bare experience, and we get to the end of this story, and we realize that these women, they go, “Don’t you get it, Ruth is better to you than seven sons, the number of completion in the Old Testament. Sons were the ones that could carry on the family name and give you a legacy, and they’re saying that woman that was standing there when you thought you were empty. God, actually, do you see what He’s done? She’s better to you. She’s worth more to you than seven sons, and the Lord, after all, has not left you destitute. He has provided. He has come to your aid and I just, whenever I get to this part about Naomi taking the child and, and placing on her lap, and then in verse 17 the women say that a son has been born to Naomi. I remember when I was writing the Bible study and I thought, Lord, this is so odd, like Boaz and Ruth have kind of left the stage, if you will, and the whole story kind of ends on Naomi with the baby, and everybody blessing her, and I’m like, she was the one that doubted, she was the one that was really bitter, she was the one that was accusing you of making her life bitter, she was angry, she even tried to get them to turn back to the false gods, and I’m like, Ruth is pretty awesome, Boaz is pretty awesome, and I don’t think that the bitter mother-in-law gets to steal the baby at the end of the story, and I sat there with that, and I just thought, and as fast as I had that thought, I felt I felt the Lord say that’s exactly, that’s exactly how this story should end. Because Ruth is not the hero, Boaz is not the hero, Naomi is not the hero. God is the hero of this story, and isn’t it just like God to bring grace, yeah, to his, to his child, to Naomi, to say I didn’t do what you thought I’d done. I never left you, Naomi. I never left you. I was with you. And then what? How better of a way to end a book than with a good old-fashioned genealogy? I got six minutes and 25 seconds.

Kelly Minter
Oh yeah, just a little genealogy to end a good romance, I Well, they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of O King David, and So these are the family records of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, Aminadab fathered Nahshon, Nashon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. And then you get to Matthew chapter one, and you see this exact scripture essentially embedded in Matthew one, and you keep going, and you keep going, and you keep going, and you get to.. and then there was the birth of Jesus. Had God’s hand gone out against Naomi? No, every way she could see it, that’s what it felt like, from walking into Bethlehem and seeing the beginning of the barley harvest to centuries after she was long, long, long in glory, Jesus Christ coming and From a line that she would be connected to, when life doesn’t work out the way that we thought, it’s because God is not writing our story, He’s writing His story and and make no mistake, he loves you, and he sees you. He’s with you, and he’s not discarding you, he’s just writing you into his story. He’s not going to forsake his glory. See, this ends with a genealogy that ends with Jesus. That’s what this is about. That’s what this story is about. I have been on a crazy wild journey the last almost. Two years the Lord called me into fostering, and it’s been wild, wild, and great. And 10 months ago I got a four and a half pound nine day old baby girl who I will be racing to the airport to get back to, because she is now 10 and a half months, and I don’t know the story God’s writing in her life, and I don’t have control of it, and I wish I did, and as soon as I say that, I’m glad I don’t, because I do trust the Lord. But I do just want to say a couple things as we wrap up. I first of all, I want to say that I’m sorry, because for, oh, I don’t know, 17 years of Bible study, a lot of the people who do my Bible studies, not all of them, but a lot, are moms, and I could not figure out why you could not get your homework done, and I judged you a little, and I am sorry. I am. My next Bible study is going to be, how to study the Bible in 90 seconds or less, because that’s about all the head space I get these days, and I tell you this to tell you that, yeah, I didn’t think at 50 I would have a baby. I’m basically Sarah, but without Abraham. I mean, that’s where we’re at. That’s that is where we’re at, folks. But I want to declare in a very uncertain time that I’m walking through in this story, that I’m not in control of the story, and you’re not in control of the story, but we will not, we will not determine who God is based on our circumstances, good or bad, we will praise him. We will praise him when he brings good things our way. We will worship him. We will thank him. I praise God for my baby. I love her with all my heart, and I praise God that he’s allowed me to have her the time I’ve had her, and when hard times come, we praise him, because he sees what we can’t. He sees that what looks empty to us might actually be total fulfillment. He does what we cannot imagine, because he’s writing his story for his glory and and he, I don’t even want to say invites, because that’s too weak of a word. He gathers us into the story, so if life has not worked out entirely how you think, can we reframe it today and say that God is a God of redemption, that there is nothing that He can’t redeem, there is nothing that He cannot do, there is no one that He cannot use, there is, there’s just, there’s just no limit to the paths of victory for Him. Father God, we thank you for this time.

Kelly Minter
Lord, we thank you that, Lord, you did not leave Naomi without, and because of your Son, Jesus Christ, and his death, and his resurrection, and his ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, you have not left us without. You have not done the thing that we sometimes fear you have done. You have not, Lord. We bless you. We thank you that you are faithful, and I pray, God, and thank you that you are in the process of redeeming every story that is in this room for the praise and the glory of Jesus. Amen.