The rest of the Book of Ruth is taken up with the love story of Boaz and Ruth, although if you read closely you will discover that it is Naomi who moves the romance along by urging Ruth to go to the threshing floor, “uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do.” (Ruth 3:1-5)
Naomi was a sad and bitter woman when she returned to Bethlehem. “Do not call me Mara,” she says. “For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has afflicted me and the Almighty has brought calamity on me?” (Ruth 1:19-21)
How often do you and I find ourselves railing against what appear to be the bad things that happen to us? For me it is too often. Recently I read a short meditation that brought me up short, though.
“You can begin the journey of holiness by examining your reactions and attitudes to the daily doses of life you are given - for it is the day to day, the minute to minute, the joy and the sorrow, the bitter and the sweet that is the training ground for holiness.” (explorefaith.com)
Like Naomi, my reaction often leads toward angry bitterness. However, Naomi’s story reminds me that no one knows the whole story. God did not forget Naomi. Boaz marries Ruth and they have a son. “Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next of kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.’…They named him Obed; he was the father of Jesse, the father of David.” (Ruth 4:13-17)
Naomi, the destitute widow, became the great-great grandmother of the mighty King David of Israel. God, in love, took her emptiness and transformed it into a heritage for all generations. When she returned to Bethlehem, Naomi wouldn’t have believed that she would be a grandmother. We know the ‘rest of the story’ which she did not—that her descendent would become king of the nation and another descendent would be the savior of the world!
Ruth’s love for Naomi was the first step in her redemption. By loving her mother-in-law, Ruth was a mirror of God’s love to Naomi. Eventually Naomi was able to receive and reciprocate that love and accept the blessings God had for her. When she held Obed in her arms, and remembered her hard-hearted neighbors in Moab, Naomi might have been tempted to echo the first few verses of Psalm 37: “Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb.”
You and I do not know the whole story either. Our life is written a day at a time. God’s love is always there before us, so we should not ‘fret’ or ‘be envious’ no matter what the appearances of our life. God is greater than appearances and we are safe in God’s hands! That is rather extraordinary, don’t you think? From the security of God’s love we, like Ruth, can offer that love to those around us because God’s love is for all, even those who irritate or wrong us. Paul reminds us that “all things work for God for those who love God.” (Romans 8:28)
I’m not saying it’s easy, but Jesus did say, “Love one another, as I have loved you.” Teresa of Avila a 16th century Carmelite nun is credited with the following prayer that reminds me that, like Ruth, I am the mirror of God to those I meet. I am the hands and feet of Christ!
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
.jpg)
See you next week for a further Ordinary Time Excursion—with Rahab of Jericho. She was certainly someone that no one would have expected God to use. See what happened when God’s love transformed her life. PS-one of my books is Naomi’s Joy. It is a fictionalized account of Naomi’s story from her childhood during the Exodus until Obed’s birth. Check out the My Books tab at the top of the blog for more of my books.
