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It is amazing how God has painted the picture of grace throughout the pages of the Bible. They come in different albums for different occasions throughout biblical history, ready to be gleaned for divine inspiration. One such album is the book of Ruth. It is a beautiful story of God’s grace amid utter sinfulness and self-will in Israel. It takes us through the journey of disobedience of one family and their pain in a foreign land (Ruth 1:1-5). It reveals the providential workings of God in the background to restore the family in a unique way that continues to build the generational line of the Messiah. In that album, God reveals the future union of Jews and gentiles in His redemption plan – a perfect picture of the church – so that, together we can experience His divine blessedness. This album displays the beauty of grace in Ruth, the Moabite woman, who becomes the heroine of the story (2:1-10). 

In one picture set in the album, we see Ruth asking Naomi, her mother-in-law, for permission to explore the fields to see if she could find favor in eyes of some owner, from whose field she could “pick up the  grain the harvesters leave behind” (vs. 2). By divine direction, Ruth finds herself in the field of Boaz, her late father-in-law’s relative. God’s timing brings Boaz from Bethlehem (2:4). He notices Ruth, and immediately, the story takes a turn into a love story that raises before the reader, the redemption story of God through Christ Jesus. Ruth needs a savior, Boaz comes into the picture, extends favor to her, feeds and refreshes her, and protects her (5-9). No wonder Ruth is bewildered and asks, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me – a foreigner?” (vs. 10). That’s the beauty of grace.

Ruth laid no claim to anything. As a foreigner, she had no claim to any of God’s promise of provision for His people; neither did she think that her hard work in the field had earned her the special recognition she received from Boaz. It was all grace, and we are blessed if we see things that way.

Grace embraces us with her beauty when we know we deserve nothing from God because of anything in us or what we have done to deserve it. It is humbling to realize that it is God who gives us even faith to believe and be saved. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Apprehending this fact is the only way we can appreciate God for our salvation and be thankful to Him for Christ Jesus, and to others He uses to bless us.

So like Ruth, let us recognize in all things that we are unworthy, undeserving, and unable, but for the grace of God. That way, we can see the beauty and “riches of His grace that He has lavished on us” (Eph. 1:8), and be thankful in all things, even when we don’t get what we want or ask for (1 Thess. 5:18).