Musings from my bench at the airport: on Boaz and Ruth

I've spent the past 4 hours in the DBX airport, waiting for my connecting flight to Athens. I've been tempted to do some work (OK, I actually have done some work), but mostly I have reverted to one of my favorite past times: people watching.

My often overactive imagination loves to put stories into different scenarios. My control freak and bossy nature probably helps.

I saw a middle aged man sleeping on a chair cluster near me. He's well dressed, maybe a business man on a work trip or something along those lines. He had a sleep mask on and was slumbering peacefully near the gate. (I can't fully get myself to sleep in public on a bench. I don't seem to be able to understand how people can do that.)

For some bizarre reason (probably because my brain is bizarre), I imagined a scenario, what if a young woman in her early twenties just situated herself near this man's feet and sleep there? What would it be like for the man to wake up finding a girl comfortably napping at his feet?

I cringe. So awkward.

But that was the story of Boaz and Ruth from Ruth 3. I have no clue why this little scenario played out in my mind other than the fact that I wrote devotional week entries on this.

I can't believe that Ruth had to do that to Boaz at the threshing floor. So awkward, cringe-worthy, and risky. She had to risk her dignity, her reputation, her sense of security to do this one thing that Naomi told her to (without really understanding what it means). Gotta hand it to her. Girl's got guts. I don't know if I could do what she did at the threshing floor. I might have just cut my losses and walked back to Moab.

Some of the questions that came to me as I was thinking of this scenario was these:

• Ruth trusted Naomi explicitly. How can I trust anyone that much? (I have trust issues.)
• God gives us opportunities to do big things - even awkward things. How do I know that it's really God talking and not just my head concocting some weird things?
• What am I willing to risk for what God is calling me to do?

I don't know if I have the courage to answer these questions yet. But it's a process. It's always a process. Right?

[Love always, T.]