Where's Waldo

I imagine that you are familiar with the Waldo character. Blue pants, red and white striped shirt, beanie, brown hair, and round glasses. Perhaps you've spent hours pouring over pages simply CRAMMED with other characters and objects, searching for the ever-elusive Waldo. Or maybe your children have played the computer equivalent. There were even TV episodes starring him for a while.
If you've spent any time at all searching for Waldo, you know that sometimes he can be pretty hard to find. But once you know where he is he sticks out like a neon light.

I've written before about how every page of Scripture whispers about Christ. And I have encountered that again recently as I've studied Ruth. Most teachers I've heard agree that Boaz is a shadow pointing to Christ because he redeems Ruth and Naomi in the story. But as I meditated on chapter two, I saw SO MUCH MORE than just the climactic purchase of the land and marriage of Boaz to Ruth. You see, just after Boaz meets Ruth, he begins to provide for her in extraordinary ways. First he tells her to stay with his own servants for her safety. There was also an element of security for her in knowing that she can return to glean in Boaz's fields throughout the harvest. He provides her the water that his servants have drawn. Later in the day, he gives her so much food that she is unable to eat it all. And He commands his reapers not only to allow Ruth to glean wherever she wanted in the fields, but even to pull out extra stalks of grain for her to gather. This command allowed her to bring home an unheard of amount of grain that first day, which lightened her burden as she worked to provide food for herself and Naomi.

As I pondered these wondrous ways that Boaz generously provided for Ruth, I was reminded of the ways that Jesus provides for His people.

He is our protection.

Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalms 27:1

The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death. The LORD will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.
Psalms 37:32-33

He is  our security.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6

He is Living Water for our souls.

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
John 4:10-14

He is the Bread of Life.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
John 6:35

He lightens our burdens.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30

And He does redeem us from our sins!

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:23-26
 
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:10