wateringThis post is a continuation from yesterday. So CLICK HERE if you didn’t read it.

Imagine you, your spouse, and two children move to another town to start a new life. Your spouse dies and two children marry people from that town. Then they die and you are left alone as are your in-laws. You have no means of income or supporting yourself, so you move back home with no idea of what to do next. Would you say that is a hard thing to endure?

Or imagine your parents and siblings resent you. It gets so bad your siblings kidnap you and sell you to people from another country. There you are falsely accused of a crime and thrown into prison… forgotten for years (17 to be exact). Would you say that is a hard thing to endure?

What if I told you that in both cases it took exactly those very things happening the way they did for those very people to be blessed beyond measure… for centuries after those things happened?! The first story is the one of Naomi and Ruth. The second story is Joseph in Genesis.

Because those things happened the way they did… Ruth was included in God’s family and became the great-grandmother of King David (From whom Jesus came)! Because those things happened the way they did in Genesis, Joseph provided for the Jewish people to escape a famine… flourish in Egypt… and  eventually Jesus was born of the Jewish nation.

Ruth never knew who her great-grandson would be. Joseph never saw Moses deliver the Children of Israel from bondage. But both were part of the story… A story of redemption. Now consider this…

YOU TOO are part of a story of redemption that took place with Joseph… then Naomi and Ruth and David. Jesus came to redeem all those who would believe. And now the story of redemption continues AND YOU ARE PART OF IT AS A BELIEVER IN JESUS CHRIST! You may be the one who plants a seed… you may be the one who waters a seed… you may tend it… you may be the seed (!)… or you may be the one who sees the harvest. Which one you are doesn’t matter near as much as being part of the story!

Lesson: Be content to be part of God’s plan of redemption… whatever that part is. Glorify God that He is always working… sometimes openly, but most of the time in secret. One day we all will see the complete story. Until then… “We live by faith, not by sight.” I’m not a fatalist… I believe in Divine Providence!