I sat in the back of my Yukon last Wednesday evening, feet on the bumper, as my good farmer man wrestled with a baler and a belt.
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I gazed across the field and breathed in deep the scent of mown feed that the baler had been hungrily ingesting and compressing into round bales, before it decided to go ahead and greedily eat up a belt too. This, in turn, shut down the baling process until a trip was made to the local John Deere dealer and a new belt thumped into the back of my Yukon for the needed repair.
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I reveled in the pinks and oranges and painted sunset colors across the sky, and I thought about Ruth while my farmer raced to make repairs and resume turning windrows into round bales with a rather foreboding forecast of rain threatening.
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The raked hay lay in long strips across the field and my eyes followed one and I thought of long ago when grain was shaped into shocks and longer ago when gleaners followed after the harvesters in the field, and that’s where Ruth came in.
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I watched my farmer labor fixing his machine, sweat dripping and I pictured Ruth, laboring for grain to survive, for food to feed herself and Naomi. I thought of an aching back from bending and gathering, gathering and bending.
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And I thought of a good man named Boaz and I thought of his request to his harvesters to leave handfuls of purpose for Ruth, to provide for and help her and I thought of my good farmer man working hard to provide for his family and I thanked God for good men who protect, care and provide for, and cherish women the way He intended.
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Ruth 2:7 ~ “She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
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Ruth 2:16 ” And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.”
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