When I Don't See Miracles I Still See God


"It just so happened." Ruth 2:3
I love the story of Ruth. Perhaps one of the things that has always stood out to me most is the absence of miracles. A miracle is something you simply cannot naturally explain, but all of Ruth's story is very ordinary and understandable. It's a story of hardship and difficulty, and also of a family that loved one another and worked together through those difficulties.
Some of the individuals in the Bible can be difficult to relate to. Their lives seem so extraordinary it's hard to imagine such experiences. My experience in life is one where I've seen God do the miraculous, but if I'm honest my life is a lot more like Ruth's than Elijah's.
When Peter's mother in law was sick God healed her. When Ruth's husband was sick he died.
When Lazarus died he was raised from the dead. When Ruth's husband died he stayed dead.
When the children of Israel needed food God gave them manna. When Ruth needed food she had to move to another country and work in the fields picking up leftovers.
I don't know who you relate to better, but my axe heads sink, there's never any money in my fish's mouth, and angels never make me pancakes. Don't get me wrong. I believe all those things happened, and know they still can. Yet, most of my days are...rather ordinary. 
That's what Ruth's life was like. One ordinary day she went out to a field to pick up some leftover grain, and "it just so happened" that the field's owner came to check on the field that day. To sum things up, she caught his eye, won his heart, became his bride, and ends up in the geneology of Jesus as David's great-grandmother.
In an ordinary life with no voices from heaven or angelic visitations everyone just so happened to be where they needed to be, when they needed to be there. God was actively involved in their lives and I assure you He is in yours as well. I love ordinary lives. I've learned that God is moving in the daily routine.
When I don't see miracles, I still see God.

Following the Son,

James A Williams

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