This woman from ancient times was no powerful princess – just a young, vulnerable widow, an impoverished outcast. The story records no famous events or places – just a struggling family facing hard times in a small, agricultural community occupied with their livelihoods and customs. But the hidden hand of God is at work in the lives of these ordinary people, and wonderfully at work in history. God transforms hardship from bitterness to joy; God’s word liberates people to become a community filled with loving kindness towards outsiders; God’s people reach out to their enemies. And most significantly, God’s great plan, to send a promised saviourKing to redeem people of all nations, is being worked out. Like those in the story, we may be just ordinary people, unable to see how the events of our lives will turn out. But by encountering the God who works through the circumstances of life, we too can discover the God who can turn our ‘poverty’ to ‘plenty’ through Jesus Christ.