Two of us have been reading through the book of Ruth in Hebrew, trying to retain what we learned this year. Today, Ruth returned home after her daring request for Boaz to marry her. Her mother-in-law asked her a question. In English we read it as, “How did it go?” In Hebrew, she asks, “Who are you?” “In this context Naomi is clearly not asking for Ruth’s identity. Rather, she’s asking, in effect, ‘Are you his wife?’” (New English Translation notes)

It makes me think. What would happen if I readjusted my (unarticulated) question from “How did it go?” to “Who are you?” Would it help me shift my sight from the details of how I think I did and my analysis of the situation (often seeing the need and the lack in myself), help me see instead God’s constant care for me as His own?

These last couple of weeks God has seemed silent. It has hurt. (It’ s a good thing Kleenex has come on sale again!) But I don’t think God has been silent at all. He’s just been speaking in ways different than I’m used to. I have noticed the gifts – many even made it to my journal – but I’ve let them slip through my fingers. Focused on the empty places. The times God didn’t speak as I had hoped.

I want to learn to hear God’s voice in all of the different ways He wants to speak to me. Part of that is learning to ask the questions that will help me hear.

I tried asking myself today: Who are you? How is God loving you, calling out ‘you are mine!’?”

A friend spoke truth into my confusion. A genius fixed my computer in ten minutes after a week of frustration (all except the bit needed to write this in a bigger font! . . . and that’s hopefully on its way too. . .). A needed jacket was on sale – the perfect size though marked as a 2 instead of a 10, and the only one of any size left on the rack. A Jamaican man played Edelweiss on a steel drum in the skytrain station, a moment of  surprising peace and beauty in the rush of crowds. Each a whisper of Presence into the moment.