by Kimberly Beaty

“Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall; for the man will not rest, until he have finished the thing this day.”
~ Ruth 3:18

One of my favorite biblical accounts is that of Ruth and Boaz. It has all the makings of a Divine chic-flic. Have you ever pondered what it was like though for Ruth to wait out her “fate” in the marriage department? I know matters were entirely different in their culture, but I still wonder how she felt about giving herself to a stranger that could have been. . . less than . . . dreamy??? (here we go, 1,2,3. . . shudder!)

She had been acquainted with Boaz and received a measure of his kindness – at least enough to pull her heart strings his way, it seems. Then the realization that some other man got first dibs to her had to be reckoned with. It’s another one of those drama moments that can be easily skimmed over without much fanfare when we just read the words on the page.

After laying her heart at his feet, she went home to Naomi, whom I am sure had burrowed a trench in the floor from pacing while she waited. Ruth spills the story from her nervous lips and Naomi utters those words from the hardest verse in my Bible:
“Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall. . .”

SIT STILL??? You have got to be kidding me! Sit still. . . sit still??? I am wound up tighter than a spring . . . and you tell me SIT STILL?? (Well, let’s just hope that Ruth was a bigger girl than I.)

Never fear, the story weaves it’s way through to “happily ever after”. The shoe gets traded; the preferred man gets the girl; the grandmother gets a baby; and the foreign girl gets her name in lights when the Messiah’s family tree gets mentioned. Ahh, happy sigh.

But life doesn’t always work that way, does it? We all have many encounters with “sit still”. Military life provides bushels. Sometimes we are left . . . sitting . . . with our souls anything but still. No answers. Nothing. Our Prince doesn’t come riding in on a white horse just in the nick of time. Truth doesn’t seem to prevail. Sin doesn’t seem to meet justice. And happily ever after becomes happily never after. Our souls are left to pine away with waiting on the Lord. What then?

Quite honestly, I don’t know. The only thing that comes to mind is, like the widow seeking justice, (Luke 18) we pound on heaven’s door to remind Him, “I’m sitting . . . STILL . . .”

And then from my hardest verse there pops a hint of consolation. Look at the last half this time: “the man will not rest until he has settled it today.” Ruth, “sitting still” in her house could not see the actions Boaz was taking on her behalf. I cannot see the actions my heavenly Boaz has already taken.

While time ticks heavy on my side of the clock, He already sees the credits on the screen. The moment He heard my whimpered prayer, muffled into my tear-stained pillow, heaven heard,
“And. . . ACTION!” from the Director.
The lights, the camera, everything started rolling toward the climax.
“He will not rest until He has settled it TODAY.”

His “TODAY” is timeless, remember. That’s something we can’t wrap our pretty little minds around. We have to “sit still” and know with a faith heart that He has the bees of heaven just a buzzin’ to orchestrate the climactic moment when He rends the heavens and comes down. (Is. 64:1) I have to believe that the longer our “sitting still”, the more dramatic will be that moment in our hearts. Like the reunion after deployment, the climax of our Boaz trading the shoe and sealing the deal on our behalf will leave us with a joy that knows no bounds. Let us then dream while we have all this time to “sit still”, knowing that happy moment will be ours “TODAY.”

About the Author:
Kimberly is a new Army wife, married to her high school sweetheart for 21 years, and currently stationed at Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma.  She is a homeschooling mama of ten children.  Besides writing, she enjoys art, music, fitness, and anything that lets her spend time with her husband.