Ruth and Boaz in God's Plan

The book of Ruth is one of the most underunderstood books in the bible. Yes, I meant exactly what I said. As contemporary Christians, we think we understand Ruth - She was David's great-grandmother, therefor an ancestor of Jesus. That's why her story is in the bible. That's not a bad understanding, but it's well under the understanding that we should get from it. Unless you know the bible very well or you have an awesome cross-reference/study bible, you're going to miss the subtleties of the story.
Like, did you know that Ruth was a descendant of Lot? Did you know that numerous laws were broken in this book? Do you know how the kinsman-redeemer worked? Do you know who Tamar and Perez were?
When you explore the subtleties of the book of Ruth, it becomes much richer.
But this blog isn't mainly about that. However, since I have studied Ruth in that kind of depth, I have a greater understanding of it than the average Christian. Since I've also learned how to study the bible, I know to ask "How would the original readers have understood this book?"
When we read this story, we jump immediately to "she's an ancestor of Jesus." The original readers didn't know that. They only knew that she was the great-grandmother of David, and that she was a very unlikely candidate for that role. In fact, based on Deuteronomy 23:3-6, she was an unlawful candidate for the great-grandmother of the king, and for the next seven of David's descendants.
In thinking about how much more incredible that story was for the original readers than for us today, I had one of those "well, duh!" moments.
Yes Ruth is an incredible story, but she didn't know how incredible it was!
Ruth lived it. She knew she was blessed to be Naomi's daughter-in-law; she knew she was blessed to become Boaz's wife, Obed's mother, Jesse's grandmother, but she never knew the rest of the story. She didn't know that her great-grandson became king!
Ruth lived her whole life without understanding her place in God's great plan of salvation. So did Boaz.
Boaz and Ruth weren't trying to do anything great and wonderful for God. They were simply living the simple life that had been given them. They were being obedient to God, not because they saw the ultimate blessing in it, but just because God was worthy to be obeyed.
You might not be seeing that what you do in life has any lasting impact, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that you live your life for God and let him work it to his glory, whether you ever see it or not! God will take your faithfulness and obedience and work them into his plan. You may not see the results until you get to heaven, but you can trust him. Whatever he's given you to do, no matter how small it seems to you, it's something God himself will make important!