Glean

What an odd choice glean is for one of my treasured words.* It wasn’t always special; it nuzzled its way into that position through the years. It does have a smooth, clean sound. And when my mouth forms the word, I am forced to smile. (You’re saying the word right now, aren’t you? See what I mean?) But then, cheese brings the same response and it isn’t one of my special words. So there must be something more.

I first encountered the word in the story of Ruth in the Bible book of the same name. Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, both widows, had no way to support themselves. For food, Ruth gleaned in the barley fields. ²And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.” Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters (Ruth 2:2-3).

The practice of gleaning came from the laws God had given Israel many years earlier after their exodus from Egypt (Deuteronomy 24:19-22; Leviticus 19:9-10). When reapers cut stalks and tied them into bundles, they were to leave the grain that fell to the ground for the poor to gather. Glean was a new and interesting word for me.

Later, I learned another definition for glean. Merriam-Webster says it is “to gather information or material bit by bit.” I love that because I recognize myself as a gleaner. Trying to take in a lot of new information at once can easily overload me. Some of my fellow educators were often disappointed after attending teaching workshops because “it was the same old stuff.” I, on the other hand, was happy to “glean” one or two cool new ideas to try with my students.

However, it took years to transfer that thinking to my spiritual gathering. I would get down on myself when I didn’t remember everything from a sermon or conference. I felt like a defective Christian because other people seemed to soak up much more knowledge than I did, and do it more easily. But the concept of gleaning gradually took root in my spiritual garden. I began to embrace the gathering of quality instead of overburdening myself with quantity.

Now I’m content to be a spiritual gleaner, gathering information bit by bit. Even though I forget a lot of what I read, if I finish a book and one life-changing message sticks with me, I consider my time well spent. If I gain fresh insight into God through one verse of scripture, that encounter with Him is way better than reading several chapters without hearing Him speak.

An important aspect of gleaning is that it needs to be a continual activity to be effective. If Ruth gleaned only one day, she and Naomi would have starved. But she was out there every day gathering bits of grain that all added up to a productive livelihood. I know I need to gather each day what God has dropped in my path. That is how I will enjoy consistent spiritual growth.

A gracious owner might even provide more than what naturally dropped—like Boaz, whose field Ruth gleaned in. He instructed his harvesters to pull stalks out of their bundles and leave them for Ruth to pick up (Ruth 2:16). I don’t know anyone more gracious than God. He provides us with all the knowledge we need to feed our spirits, in the perfect amounts we can digest.

Glean reminds me

• that God invites me into His field every day
• that His provision is always enough
• that every grain I gather is valuable to my spiritual growth
• that sometimes God pulls stalks out of the sheaves to leave me something extra

This is why glean is a word in my treasure chest.

*Treasured Words are words that have special value to me. Hearing them causes brilliant light and comforting warmth to radiate from a place deep inside me and fill my soul with a sense of well-being.