waiting for boaz, wishing for naomi

Being single is different for guys in so many ways. I've been trying to think what encouragement men receive from Scripture if they're ever as frustrated and lonely in their singleness as we women tend to be. Do people ever hound them, tease them, even cast them questionable sideways glances as they notice a bare ring finger on the left hand?

For my part as a single woman, those who try to encourage me always seem to talk about Boaz. They say things like, "One day your Boaz will come," or "It's okay that things didn't work out with Mr. So-and-So because he was no Boaz," or "The man God created just for you will love and care for you just like Boaz." This is all well and good, but the story of Boaz and Ruth tells us nothing about what Boaz was going through. Perhaps he was lonely and looking for a wife. Perhaps he was completely satisfied in his own little world and then blindsides by the request to be Ruth's "kinsman-redeemer." We don't know. He's actually not the hero of the story. And guess what? Neither is Ruth (even though the book is named after her).

That's right -- the hero of the story is Naomi. She's the catalyst for all of the action: she makes the move from Moab back to Bethlehem; she lets Ruth head out to work in the fields; she sends Ruth to the threshing floor for her midnight rendezvous with Boaz. And once it all pays off, after Ruth and Boaz are married and she bears him a son, all of the townspeople gather and sing praises to Naomi! She's the puppet master, the mover and shaker that makes it all happen.

Now, while I'm definitely waiting for my Boaz, at times I find myself wishing for Naomi -- someone to come along who sees the slightly bigger picture, who knows exactly whose threshing floor to send me to and what spices I should wear to please and entice him, and who knows exactly how happily and confidently he will react. If only I had a Naomi to do all the thinking for me! I could simply obey and be blissfully happy as a result. But I have no such hero -- I am simply Ruth, a stranger in a strange land struggling to get by, trusting God for my (sometimes literal) daily bread. What if I make the wrong choice? I could get all dolled up and head to the threshing floor, but what if no one's there waiting for me? Or worse, what if he's already there... with someone else?

My consolation is found in Ruth 2:5, when Boaz notices Ruth and asks about her. Here Naomi is nowhere to be found. Boaz is acting all on his own. Perhaps the story would've reached the same happy conclusion without Naomi's helping hand, because Boaz was showing some personal initiative. Perhaps my Boaz will notice me and ask about me, and begin to get our story rolling -- perhaps he has already. But oh, how I wish for a Naomi to come along, point him out to me with certainty and instruct me on how to be ready for and pleasing to him! Or -- and this is jsut to very loosely paraphrase some apocryphal versions of the story -- to go straight to my Boaz, kick him in the keester and shout, "Get a move on, idiot!"