A Sweet & Bitter Providence by John Piper is a book I've been working my way through...along with a couple of others...smile...
Too many good books...so little time!
This morning as I was reading, the following paragraphs reduced me to tears.
"At one level, the message of the book of Ruth is that the life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but they do get there. The life of the godly is not an Interstate through Nebraska but a state road through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee. There are rock slides and precipices and dark mists and bears and slippery curves and hairpin turns that make you go backward in order to go forward. But all along this hazardous, twisted road that doesn't let you see very far ahead, there are frequent signs that say, 'The best is yet to come.'
Taken as a whole, the story of Ruth is one of those signs. It was written to give us encouragement and hope that all the perplexing turns of our lives are going somewhere good. They do not lead off a cliff. In all the setbacks of our lives as believers, God is plotting for our joy...
Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like Joseph and Job and Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ."
Why the tears, you ask?
In part, because of how God has "plotted" my own life and the life of my family...which lifts my heart and soul to exuberant and unabashed praise, while simultaneously causing my hand to cover my mouth in awe that the One, True, Holy God would condescend to be mindful of me...of us.
In part, because of how God is continuing to "plot" my own life and the life of my family, as well as precious friends' lives, with the "switchbacks" that will serve to expose our hearts, unmask our idols, and reveal our sin, in order that we might enjoy and glorify Him, which is why He created and saved us!
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
2 Corinthians 4: 16-18
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