Gleaning

Ruth 2:1-13

2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”

11 Boaz replied, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

Ruth's gleaning in the field shows that how terrible the famine was, and demonstrates that there was nothing to eat at that time. The only thing she, as a poor woman with a mother-in-law, could only do was to get the leftover grains, feeling guilty of that and without drinking any water, which I guess through the situation. 

God already knew that this  kind of circumstances could happen, so He told that we should leave some grains in the field, not getting everything we, the rich, get in life. Here I can't tell that the harvesters are not that rich, but they are not hungry anymore. Then we should consider people who are hungry as well. 

In this story, Ruth must be a faithful and busy woman, not to mention to say she was good enough to care for her mother-in-law who got old, poor, and a foreigner as well. The important thing is that God is watching that and people are heard of the good behaviors and personalities, through mouth-to-mouth. Likewise, Heaven(God) helps those who help themselves. 

Thankfully, I feel this kind of help from God and people around me, while writing and publishing my book about English learning and teaching. It's been 5 years that I could finish and it's almost there. At the first moment, it was like Ruth, who had to glean from the field of others, feeling thirsty and hungry. However, I did the gleaning work and it became the  overflowing cup of grains. It started from the first gleaning. I can tell for sure that this is the key to success of Ruth and me.