⁸ So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here….I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.” 
 
¹⁰ At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
                                                                        -Ruth 2:8-10
 
Ruth’s ‘foreigner’-ness is a note that gets sounded throughout her story. She is regularly referred to as “Ruth the Moabite.”
 
Israel has just experienced perhaps a decade or more of famine. When resources get scarce, we tend to circle the wagons and be suspicious of outsiders demands.  All the more reason for Ruth to expect to be treated poorly.
 
That Boaz treats her kindly is both a demonstration of his character and (as we see later) his rootedness in God.
 
In yesterday’s post, we talked about the importance of taking up our mantle as image-bearers and participating in the blessing economy.  One of the great privileges we have as people made in God’s image is the opportunity to bless one another.
 
Today, we want to drill down more specifically: we’re invited to bless not only those who are closest and most like us, we’re also invited to bless those who are different from us and outside of our tribe.
 
God’s blessing economy hums along nicely when we’re participating in it with our immediate friends and family.  That same economy roars with joy when we reach across a typical cultural dividing line.
 
Today, the invitation is to think of someone who’s not typically one of ‘your’ people and move towards them to bless them. It doesn’t have to be something crazy and way out of your way . It could just be a janitor where you work that you’ve never talked to before or a waitress who’s working your table and having a bad day.
 
Take a moment to pray about one person today that you might bless who is outside of your typical sphere or realm of interactions. If you can’t think of a specific person, pray a prayer of openness, that you might see an opportunity and take it to bless someone who is in your path but not a typical part of your tribe or pattern of interactions.