It is easy to downplay imagination and assume that everyone everywhere thinks like we do. It’s a fantasy of the concretized mind to stubbornly refuse to ever stop and accept what should be obvious to most of us, that it is an impossibility any two of us think alike. And yet, this is how we often end up talking past each other. We just assume that the way we see the world is how it actually is, ignoring that there is such a thing as blind spots and biases.
The hard work of understanding begins with using the imagination to try and see life as others are trying to live it. It begins by accepting the real possibility that we know less and others know more, therefore there is wisdom in listening and understanding that everyone has a story worth the time to hear.
Periodically I have the opportunity to spend time working with the homeless through a few ministries in my city dedicated to their care. A friend of mine who was involved in the same activity remarked that being homeless in our minds is a bad thing. It is the worst outcome of life’s events we can imagine.
“But what if,” he said, “being homeless to them is an improvement? What if they are coming out of something even worse? Which would then explain, at least to some extent, why they don’t trust anyone.”
I had not considered this before.
It makes sense and explains the connection between the poor and homeless with the need for all who work with them to obtain some how a compassion beyond their own ability to self-create. Thus the need for God. Might this explain why ministries of compassion can touch lives where government programs cannot?
So now, what about Ruth and Boaz?
Note that Boaz did not rescue Ruth as we might attempt to do today. He allowed her to work in his fields. Yes he was watching over her and protecting her from afar, but he was also respecting her and giving her dignity to do what she was capable of doing for herself and her mother-in-law.
She worked hard every day except on Sabbaths and she lived wherever she lived with Naomi through the harvest season. Boaz did not rescue her. He left her where she was. I imagine this took some time. Nothing was rushed.
Take Aways For Us
We are all recovering from something. It isn’t an easy path and none of us really understands others very much. We do better in understanding as we work to listen well and strive to imagine what others are really going through.
But it doesn’t stop with others. It involves the hard work of reflecting on our own lives, even the hard parts. Especially the hard parts, and then asking God to give us the compassion to forgive ourselves and then forgive and love others with the love only God is able to provide.
Boaz will rescue Ruth and Naomi only after they are ready to ask and he is ready to trust. Nothing is rushed. These are examples of really good people for our edification.