It was after 9pm on a school night and Ella (age 9) came downstairs for who-knows-what. I'm just about to walk her back upstairs when my bible catches her eye. "Ooh! Mom! Can I borrow your bible?" She said, excitedly. "Excited" definitely wasn't what I was in the mood for- I just wanted this girl in bed. But I couldn't usher her upstairs and ignore a request like this, no matter what time it was. "Of course you can," I said in my sweetest, but calmer voice- hoping she'd get the hint to take it down a notch or two. "Okay, I need to read the Book of Ruth." And she starts flipping, looks at the tabs and says "how do you do this?" I give her a quick explanation of the tabs and tell her she needs to find the letters RTH. I can tell this isn't going to be quick and I say, "I'd be happy to help you look it up tomorrow." Of course she was determined and continued to look through the tabs. "Okay, honey, I'll meet you upstairs," I said as I'm already walking up the stairs, hoping she'd just follow me. A few minutes later she came up, jumped into bed and I kissed her goodnight. Again. She didn't say anything else about it. I walked downstairs and found my bible open with the ribbon marking the page for the Book of Ruth. My heart filled with affection for this little girl and her growing love for Jesus...I could clearly see His role in this. Somehow I suddenly knew it was meant for me. I was supposed to read about this lovely woman whose heart was committed to trusting God, a woman whom exuded positivity and did what she could, where she was, and with what she had. Sounds like my kind of girl. I want to be just like her. I want to be Ruth for Ella so that she, too, may become Ruth. Now, that's a pretty big lesson for 9pm on a school night. Sure glad I didn't miss it.
