Today
we are starting a new series. For the season of Epiphany-from now until the end
of February, we’ll be studying the Book of Ruth in the Bible. I’ll also
be using insights I gained while writing my book Naomi’s Joy.
The
Biblical Book of Ruth comes right after the Book of Judges, and is set “in the days when the judges ruled”. We
don’t get much ‘back story’ because the Book of Ruth jumps right in to tell us “there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of
Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and
his two sons.”
So, for the first couple of weeks, we’ll have to depend on our imaginations to
fill in the blanks that the Bible author didn’t think were important.
In
my novel, Naomi’s Joy, Naomi’s childhood
takes place during the Exodus wanderings. Because the Judges of Israel were the
leaders of the people after the Exodus ended with the Conquest of Jericho and
Canaan, it seems logical that she would have grown up during the 40 years of
travel. She experienced the annual visits to Mt. Sanai and the nomadic life of
the people as they moved their flocks and herds from pasture to pasture.
In my story, her father is one of the
ones who dies when the people rebel and are bitten by the snakes. (Numbers
21:5-9) Naomi says, “Some were saved by that bronze image. Still, for
many more, like my father, it was too late. We left their graves behind when we
moved on. Care of my siblings fell to me. My mother was too broken by her grief
to tend us. Even though I never dared tell anyone my secret, I knew that the hand
of God was against me.”
We are formed by our childhoods. In my novel, Naomi is 12
years old when her father dies. After seeing her father’s death, she turns to
attempting to earn God’s favor by complete and fear-filled obedience.
Are there things in your childhood
that affect how you view God and faith? Some of us have
a problem with identifying God as ‘Father’ because of poor or abusive parenting
by their own father. Some cannot trust anyone, even God, because of betrayals
in their childhood. Others have no difficulty trusting and calling God Father,
or Abba or Daddy. They were blessed with a supportive and loving human father.
My own childhood was secure under the
control of my father. However, he had issues with church and trust because of
his own upbringing. That resulted in very little church attendance as I grew
up. My grandmother, however, showered me with Bible story books, so I gained an
undergirding of those stories even without Sunday School. I was an avid reader
and devoured all the books she sent. Years later when I was asked to teach
Sunday School myself, I was fast friends with the characters and stories and
easily translated them into flannel board and puppet lessons for the
Pre-schoolers. Still later, those same stories became the root of the Biblical
novels I write.
Take a little time to remember your own
childhood faith experiences, or lack of them. How did God find you and how did you find God as a child, or later? Can
you see how your experiences as a child might influence your relationship with
God and the church and faith?
Next time, we’ll enter Naomi’s world as
she becomes a wife and mother.
