Seeing Naomi
Life is an outcome of choices. Paths we decide to take, paths we decide to deter from, and paths we have yet to discover. I admire people who take the traditional route, I also admire those who opt out from it. I was rigidly in the former; I understood things in black and white and do's and don'ts. But, "Wisdom comes with age," Job 32:7; and as we age we (hopefully) grow out of our naivety. My impressionable mind led me onto helpless paths of depending on others to make decisions for me, now, decision-making has become a wonder to me.
People can genuinely be happy on the traditional route, when it's their choice or even when they had to learn how to be content. I can empathize with those who feel like they don't have a choice; how for them they may say to themselves, "that's life! It is what it is." For myself, I can't reconcile with that sense of defeat. To give up hope that there could be more any beauty in this world; whether you add to the life you have and explore the more in it, or you take a different path. We have choice.
See Naomi in the book of Ruth in scripture. How did she get here? To change her name to Mara? She started on the traditional path: marrying and having sons in Bethlehem, Judah. Then, because of famine and hardship, the family left to dwell in the country of Moab, probably a short planned move that turned into a permanent stay. They did what they thought was the right thing to do for their family, but by the time we meet Naomi we learn that she lost her husband and her sons. She felt everything was taken away from her. She didn't repent, but just accepted the loses and decided to go back home, to settle in her defeat, believing that God has made her life bitter.
We see her after years of suffering, years of longing and dreaming and hoping. She was done; now left to her own devices, she decided to take herself back home. Once she was home, with one of her daughter in law's as an unexpected companion, she then saw a spark of opportunity for her bloodline with Ruth and Boaz, and she seized it.
Who knows what her life would have looked like, we can go over so many possibilities. We see her reach this point in her life where it seems like all things are over for her, and yet, she has wisdom to impart. Her wisdom, her meddling, her orchestrating led to Ruth and Boaz marrying, and the rest is history. She also recognized God's kindness in the midst of her bitter feelings (Ruth 2:20).
I love God's kindness and understanding in every season of life. Don't forget, just as He is kind in the good times, He remains kind in the bad. I can feel His kindness towards me now; in this new season of life I had moments of feeling bitter. Towards God, towards the church, towards myself? I'm still processing. But I'm holding on to God's grace, because His grace is sufficient enough for me.
Like Naomi, I have wisdom now that I didn't have before. Seeing God in this new place, in this place of renewal where He is redeeming time, bringing true freedom and light, opening my eyes, I can also see how God's grace lives here, too.
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