The problem, of course, with planting footsteps in the sea is that liquids do not retain their shape once the foot is withdrawn! In other words, the ways of God cannot always be discerned by us in any visible, transparent way. It requires from us a degree of trust and faith in the providence of God. In ways that only afterwards became clearer, Ruth’s gleaning in the barley fields of Bethlehem was part of God’s plan all along whereby she and Boaz would meet and eventually marry and have a child called