AND THEN… ONE DAY

The other morning, I opened my Bible to Ruth chapter three and was immediately arrested by the first two words:

“One day…”

Those two words sat quietly on the page, and I decided to sit with them. My mind went back and forth as they seemed to carry an unexpected weight.

The Book of Ruth is all of four chapters. Most people can read it in less than an hour. Yet a period of somewhere between ten and twelve years has been compressed into a few pages.

Then I began to see something: Ruth had been consistent in her loyalty to Naomi. She had not grown tired or weary.

“Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9 KJV

We see Ruth move from famine to harvest, from grief to joy, and from loss to restoration in that short space of four chapters.

Ruth lived those four chapters one ordinary day at a time.  And God lived them with her. And after all those ordinary days of faithfulness and loyalty, Scripture suddenly says:

“One day…”

Those two words did not mean,

“After a few minutes.”

They did not mean,

“After a few pages.”

They represented months and years of living, serving, grieving, trusting, and waiting.

By the time we arrive at Ruth chapter three from chapter one, Ruth had already left everything familiar behind. She had left her homeland, her people, her customs, and her future as she understood it.

She accompanied Naomi to a place she did not know and to a people she barely understood. When she arrived in Bethlehem, there was no indication that Boaz would appear in her story.

There was no promise of marriage.

And honestly, I do not think marriage was anywhere on her mind.

I believe her decision to return with Naomi was because she had encountered the God of her late husband’s people—the God of Israel. The kind of encounter that would make her leave the world she knew behind.

She had exchanged certainty for uncertainty.

There was no question about it.

Ruth knew nothing about a kinsman redeemer because it was not her culture or her custom.

She only knew the One she had encountered.

And she trusted Him.

There was no promise of a happy ending.

There was only the next step ahead of her.

Care for Naomi.

Glean in the fields.

Trust God.

And she kept doing the very next thing before her.

And then… one day.

What struck me most was that Ruth herself could not see what was coming.

She could not see Boaz.

She could not see David.

She could not see the generations that would follow.

She certainly could not see that her name would one day appear in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

Yet she kept moving forward, not because she understood the outcome, but because she trusted the God who held the outcome.

Recently, I found myself reflecting on this while facing a situation that felt overwhelming. The future seemed uncertain. Solutions were not obvious. Like Ruth, I could not see the end of the story. I could only see the next step. And I took it. And God vindicated me!

Dear friends, perhaps that is where some of us find ourselves today.

We would love to know how God will resolve a matter that has been burdensome.

We would love to see the full picture.

We would love to know exactly when and how the answer will come.

Instead, God gives us enough grace for the next step, the next prayer and for the next act of obedience.

Or simply the grace to get up and show up the next day.

The beautiful thing about God’s provision is that He is never limited to what we can see.

While Ruth was gleaning in a field, God was writing a story.

While she was faithfully caring for Naomi, God was arranging circumstances she knew nothing about.

The words “one day” remind us that God often works behind the scenes long before we recognise His hand.

What appears sudden is often the flowering of seeds  that we planted long before. Don’t give up now. The harvest is near.

The prayer will be answered.

The breakthrough will come.

That door will open.

There will be restoration.

You will pursue, overtake and recover all.

The unexpected provision will come.

That “one day.”

When we finally arrive there, it becomes clear that God has been at work all along.

So if today finds you waiting, trusting, praying, serving, or simply taking the next step, please dear one, do not give up.

Do the next thing.

Be diligent with it.

You may not know what tomorrow holds.

You may not see the end of the story.

But the God who was faithful to Ruth is still faithful today.

The Book of Ruth is full of people who could not see what God was doing.

Naomi couldn’t see it.

Orpah couldn’t see it. (or she would not have stayed back at Moab.)

Ruth couldn’t see it.

Even Boaz couldn’t see the whole story.

They were simply living ordinary days.

Dear friend,

Keep trusting God.

Keep following Him.

Keep taking the next step.

And remember:

Sometimes God writes “one day” over a moment, but the story behind it has been unfolding for far longer than we realise.

Keep going with those things nobody applauds.

Those things nobody photographs.

Those things nobody even notices.

And then… one day…. 

OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS ©