Miracle in the Routine

Like a discouraged Elijah, retreating from our troubles and hiding in a cave on the mountain, we have an expectation that God will meet with us and answer us in the whirlwind, the earthquake or with fire from heaven.

Something big and spectacular!

But not always.

God can certainly do whirlwind, earthquake and fire when it fits His plans.

But I ran into two women this morning, widowed, destitute and returning quietly to the last place one of them had experienced the provision of the Lord. I say quietly because they were pretty much convinced that they were in their predicament because the Lord has turned a blind eye to their unspeakable hardships.

Not much faith in either of them for blessing or provision from God.

Just going back to the familiar.

Of course, I am talking about Ruth and Naomi.

And what struck me this morning in reading Ruth, was the last verse of the first chapter… a chapter that catalogued their tragedies and attributed their bitterness to the Lord’s doing.

It is almost a throw away verse at first glance.

“And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.”

No big deal, right?

Happened about the same time every year.

Everyone would know what a barley harvest looked like and the routine activities associated with a harvest.

The casual reader might easily dismiss that verse as simply creating context… a literary flourish with little connection to the plot.

In fact, that little verse contains the seed of a miracle that provided everything those two widows would need and would end up in nothing less than providing the world with the lineage of Jesus, our Messiah.

God met with those two widows and set in motion the gift of salvation for the whole world inside the most routine of activities… a barley harvest.

What if you and I were to approach every day with the kind of expectation that God is at work in our faithful attention to the activities associated with our routines… to accomplish His divine purposes in and through our lives?

Don’t change your name to fit your circumstances!

Start looking for your miracle!

He doesn’t always show up in earthquake, wind and fire!

Sometimes just in the routine of the barley harvest.

“See, I am sending an angel before you to protect you on your journey and lead you safely to the place I have prepared for you” (Exodus 23:20).