Not Recognizing the Work Behind the Scenes

Over my lifetime I’ve attended a number of stage plays, including a couple on Broadway in New York City and others produced by local theatre groups. Members of the audience get caught up in the action, the singing, the storylines being performed. But usually, the stuff that’s happening behind the scenes escapes our attention.

 

Things like the simple but necessary acts of raising and lowering the curtain; moving scenery and stage props around; controlling the lighting for maximum impact; helping actors with costume changes. If done properly, we shouldn’t be consciously aware of such things. But we’d notice, wouldn’t we, if the curtain didn’t go up on schedule or if it suddenly lowered at the wrong moment? Or if an actress’s wig were askew? Or if the percussionist in the orchestra hit the bass drum or cymbals at the wrong moment?

 

What brings this to mind is understanding that of all the great things God does, one of His best is working behind the scenes, fulfilling His plans in ways we can’t always see and sometimes couldn’t even imagine. 

 

Our pastor has been taking us through the Old Testament book of Ruth, a wonderful story of tragedy and loss, redemption and restoration. The account of widow Naomi, who lost her husband and two sons years after moving to the pagan country of Moab, and Ruth, her faithful daughter-in-law. The story includes numerous circumstances that “just so happen” – seeming “coincidences” that prove integral to God’s overall purpose and plan.

 

To summarize the story, after Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, and her sons have died, she resolves to return to Bethlehem, her hometown. One daughter-in-law, Orpah, decides to remain in Moab, but Ruth utters the words (Ruth 1:16) that songstress Patti Page turned into a hit tune decades ago: “Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; your people will be my people….”

 

When they arrive at Bethlehem, Naomi and Ruth are destitute. In those days there was no welfare program; all they could count on was the law of gleaning, at harvest time leaving some grain behind for the poor and aliens to gather.

 

Naomi sends Ruth to gather what little food she can find. Ruth unknowingly “happens” to start working in a field owned by Boaz, a member of Elimelech’s family. Boaz “happens” to be a kind man who takes compassion on lowly Ruth, even though as a Moabitess she is from a people despised by the Jews.

 

Boaz introduces himself to Ruth and decides to reciprocate the favor she has shown in staying with Naomi. He directs her to work in his fields only, knowing men in other fields would likely take advantage of her. He generously feeds her and instructs his laborers to leave extra gleanings for her to collect.

 

The story gives other examples of how Boaz, much older than Ruth, extends kindness to her exceeding anything she could have hoped to receive. On the face of it, this story might seem like a simple case of being in the right place at the right time. 

 

However, in reviewing the human lineage of Jesus Christ that opens the New Testament gospel of Matthew, we read these words: “Boaz, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth” (Matthew 1:5). It goes on to state Obed was the father of Jesse, the father of King David. Boaz, through Ruth, became the great-grandfather of the king of Israel. 

 

God had a plan. God carried out His plan. And Ruth, an unlikely heroine, became a key part of His plan.

 

Looking over the course of our lives, if we are followers of Jesus Christ, we too can find instances of things that “just so happened,” seeming “coincidences” that were actually God at work in His way, in His time, for our good and His divine purposes.

 

I think back over my life. My first newspaper job was in a small Ohio town where I worked as a journalistic jack-of-all-trades, doing everything from news reporting to editorials, to obituaries and wedding announcements, to taking photos. During that time, I also met my wife. 

 

Nearly seven years later I was hired as editor of a community newspaper in Texas, where I not only honed my craft as a journalist as well as a publisher, but also began attending a church with my family where we met Jesus Christ. A few years later I was looking for the next step for advancing my career when the only job opportunity that presented itself was an editorial position with a marketplace ministry called CBMC.

 

I won’t recount dozens, even hundreds of other circumstances that transpired as God unfolded His plan for me and my family. But I assure you, these were not coincidences. They could not all have happened, one following another, if God had not been at work behind the scenes “[doing] immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

 

The words from the old praise song remind us, “When you don’t understand, when you can’t see His plan, when you can’t trace His hand, trust His heart.” I love the promise of Philippians 2:13, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.”