I have this oven door that I found in Canton--its an actual door of an OLD OLD oven made out of cast iron--it would kill you if it fell from the perch I have it on (its secure)...I absolutely LOVE it and my family just does not understand why I love it so much(read: they HATE it).....I haven't really gotten it, either, until this week. I am doing a book study on the book Nurture by Lisa Bevere....WONDERFUL book....and in one chapter, she addressed the book of Ruth and how we need mothers - not mentors and the difference....she was talking about how Naomi told Ruth to go glean from Boaz's fields and what gleaning meant....

Ruth was invited to join the group of women who gleaned exclusively in Boaz's fields until the end of the harvest. These were the women of strength who worked diligently in his fields so that nothing would be lost and all would be fed. Is this not what we are looking for today--women of strength ? So many have been left behind by the harvesters because no one knew how to look for them.

gleaning is painstaking work; one has to sift through what others have cast aside. it is to snatch from decay and see what slipped by the first pass of the harvesters

i realized why i am drawn to the oven door (as I am to the book of Ruth). a friend of mine tells me i have learned to extract the precious from the worthless=gleaning! my picture of this is that a tornado may be spinning around you (literally or figuratively) and there are precious jewels being left in the destruction. my job is to sift through the destruction--where it looks hopeless, sometimes, and find the diamonds of hope, the jewels that God leaves for me to see HIM in it all...and it is hard work, and not all the time fun and sometimes the jewels don't look like jewels at the time.....it IS painstaking work.....it is gleaning.....that is why i LOVE this oven door SOOOOO much :)