Ruth 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”

The Book of Ruth is an interesting story. Naomi and her husband leave Israel and move to neighboring Moab. In Moab, Naomi has two sons who marry Moabites.  As fate would have it, all the men (Naomi’s husband and both her sons die.) Naomi returns to Israel, her daughter-in-law, Ruth is steadfast and goes with her.  There, Ruth eventually marries a man named Boaz.  Ruth and Boaz have a son named Obed. Obed is the grandfather of King David.

In the above passage, Ruth asks Naomi for permission to go to the Boaz’s fields and glean.  Gleaning is going through the fields and picking up the remains of what is left after the crop has been harvested. It is barely enough food to live under normal circumstances. I imagine it is hard dirty work.

However, it is doing just that that allows Ruth to meet her destiny.  Though this menial work Ruth not only ends up with a vastly improved lifestyle but also becomes the Mother of Kings.

We might all learn something from that story.