Some of the experiences we have in life are hard to bear. We are talking about tragedies. You may have already experienced such a thing. You feel like your life has been turned upside down with no hope, no positive future, and a significant burden to carry. Some people might try to comfort you. As kind and supportive as they may try to be, you feel they just don’t understand where you are. In your head, you know what to do. You just can’t get yourself moving. You are stuck in your own personal hell.
In such a situation, prayer seems useless. There is a great temptation to conclude that even God doesn’t understand or care. It’s a state of bewilderment. It’s a time in which your motivation is stuck in emotional concrete. Nothing can be undone. Sadness is the rule of the day. There may be alternatives to try, but they usually add to the conflict in the grief. Such was the situation with what Naomi in our text knew in her life.
Because there was famine in the land, Naomi’s husband had the bright idea of moving to Moab where there was no famine. Oh, they had food to eat all right. It so happened that the move was the cost of losing her husband and two sons. She was in a foreign land widowed and without the support of her offspring. All she had were her two daughters-in-law and they were Moabites. One of them left her to return to her own people.
Since the famine had lifted back home, the only choice was to return to Bethleham. When she did, and when she was greeted by those who knew her, she blamed God for being bitter toward her. In reality, she was bitter toward him. It gnawed on her. It tore her apart every moment of every day. She was so angry at God that she changed her name to Mara that means bitterness, grief.
What can her experience tell us for how to cope and how to address the problem of our struggles? (1) Though she was so angry at God, she still had a conscious awareness of him. Later in the story, she acknowledged his guidance and hope. (2) There was one single person that was her companion in grief; Ruth, her daughter-in-law. Ruth was a young woman who worked outside the home to support them. (3) The two women shared their predicament. They relied on each other for whatever solution might appear.
(4) The tragedy was not something they could forget because it was always part of their personal histories. They did not fight against it. Instead, they solved one problem at a time. It is easy to feel like all these problems are mammoth stones weighing heavy on our backs. The best thing they did, and we need to do, is take the biggest stone and deal with it first. Is their case they needed a place to live and food to eat. (5) Following their example, they explored new alternatives that were not apparent at the time of their original problem.
(6) There was a man, not in Moab, but in Israel who ultimately held that solution. When we take one step at a time that was not present originally, it is important to remain open for God’s guidance as did Naomi and Ruth. (7) Ultimately, the best solution was in the immediate proximately. Eventually, Ruth became the wife of Boaz who owned the field where she was gleaning.(8) Because of the tragedy of losing the three men in their family and the move back to Israel, Ruth is now listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Without all that happened, nothing greater could happen. In the pit of despair, in our hopelessness, rely on God for something greater and better that will happen. We may not know what that greater and better is until Eternity, but it will eventually be known later. We may not feel like praising God at the time because it was so bad, but we can praise God that he was there all the time and always had us on his mind!
Christian Writer 