Sometimes we can feel like it’s only the big things that matter and if we want our lives to matter we need to prioritize and give our lives to the big things.

We can live our entire life believing that our significance is “somewhere out there.”

I love that this is not how God sees things – and not how things actually are.

One of my favorite places where we can see this is in how God saves the world through a mom named Naomi.

Sandwiched in the Bible between the book of Judges and the book of 1 Samuel is a little short book called Ruth that tells the story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz.  Judges is full of seemingly big people doing big things – men and women leading armies, freeing slaves, and liberating nations.  You would think these people really matter!  They are, after all, doing the big things – things that everyone notices and no one can miss.  But how many of those Judges can you name?  How many of those people can the the typical church-goer name?  What lasting impact did those people have on the world?

The people and characters in 1 Samuel are a little more well-known and they’re also caught up in the big things – leading armies, building cities, establishing a monarchy, etc.  But interestingly, very few of these big things would have been possible without the love and faithfulness of a simple mother named Naomi.

Almost everything we know about this Naomi (which isn’t much) is found in the book named for her daughter-in-law, Ruth.  Otherwise we would know nothing of this simple, but incredibly important, life.  Naomi herself wouldn’t have even known that God was going to save the world through her.  There was no way she could have known how much her simple life of love and faithfulness mattered to the world.

So what did Naomi do with her life that was so significant?  She did the endless work of love and faithfulness of being a mother.  She raised two boys whom we can assume based on their mother and wives became good men.  She welcomed their wives into her home as her own daughters and loved them too – and they grew to love her in return.  After Naomi’s husband and sons died, Naomi left the land of Moab where she had been living and returned to Bethlehem in the land of Judah where she was from.  Her two daughter-in-laws, Orpah and Ruth, went with her – leaving everything and everyone they had known behind.  Along the way, Naomi urged them to go back saying they had no future with her.  The women wept and wept together. Eventually Orpah kissed Naomi and went back to her parents’ house, but Ruth refused to leave Naomi.  Naomi’s love and faithfulness was being returned to her.

Eventually God and Naomi worked things out for Ruth to meet and marry a man named Boaz.  In time Ruth and Boaz made Naomi a grandmother and she helped them love and raise a little boy named Obed, who would become the grandfather of David – king David – and the great (many greats) grandfather of Jesus – Son of God and savior of the world.

We see in Naomi’s story and so many others that incredible significance is found in the small everyday things – in this case, the tireless work, love, and wisdom of being a mother.  She never  knew the impact she was having on the world, and maybe you won’t either, but never lose sight of how much your small everyday acts of love and faithfulness matter to those around you and maybe even to the world.