Ruth and the Big Picture

The book of Ruth has been described as the most beautiful short story ever written. And while it’s short, less than 2500 words in English, its beauty is obvious in multiple ways. It is a story of family, it’s a love story, and more than anything, Ruth reveals the invisible hand of a sovereign God who works His will in the seemingly random events of people’s lives.

One of the great values of God’s word in general, and of a book like Ruth in particular, is that is enables us to see the “Big Picture” – how the Lord does in fact work all things together for good for those who love Him.

We cannot see The Big Picture in our own lives. We operate from day to day, a step at a time. If our recent days have been hard, full of toil or heartache or grief, it’s very difficult to convince ourselves that tomorrow will be any different.

Flying Traffic Cones

Our friend Rose (name changed) is a widow without a lot of money, and she drives a beat-up old car. So when she heard her father was sick in another state, she knew she had to take her old car on a thousand-mile road trip.

My wife prayed for Rose, and for her car, the night before the trip. Rose was able to visit her elderly father and make it all the way home safely. And she told an interesting story about the drive.

Several hours into her trip the highway was narrowed by construction. Work crews were on the shoulder, and one of the lanes was marked off by orange traffic cones.

Rose is a careful driver, and she had slowed down for the construction. But the car ahead suddenly swerved as if out of control, and somehow knocked a traffic cone up in the air. Rose saw it caroming toward her like an orange missile.

Divine Passives and Under-inflated Footballs

First let me get through the grammar, which I admit nobody cares about. But if you’ll be patient for a few sentences, I do have something better to say.

Active voice vs. passive voice...remember that? "Tom threw the ball." The verb "threw" is active voice, because "Tom" acted - did the throwing. "The ball was thrown." Now the verb is passive voice, since the subject of the sentence, the ball,  was acted upon (it was thrown, poor thing).

Anyhow, anyone who has ever taken a short course on creative writing knows we’re supposed to use active verbs! Don’t say "the balls were under-inflated." Say, "Tom under-inflated the balls." Don’t say, "the game was won by cheating." Say, "Tom won the game by cheating."