Meditation on Ruth
I was asked to write a meditation for our beautiful church and after studying Ruth for the past month here is what I have been ruminating over.
scripture
Ruth 1:20-21a
“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty...”
Meditation: Hope Moving Forward
You may be asking, “why would you pick such a depressing passage” or maybe this passage feels a little close to home and you are now contemplating a name change. Mara is now going to be 2020’s most popular name.
Naomi’s life has been emptied, she has endured famine, loss, and feels as though her entire identity is now marked by her feelings of bitterness and worse yet that it is God’s hand who has done this to her. This story does not rush Naomi out of what she feels nor does it try to make her feel better with platitudes or even try to tell her that what she feels is wrong. Rather, it is in the unfolding of the story that she is given eyes to see. The Lord gently awakens her to a different reality. Not a reality where her loss is less or her feelings are diminished but rather coexisting with these feelings and hope. Hope slowly and imperceptibly changes Naomi’s ability to see the people in her life and eventually to see how God is going to redeem.
A German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke talks about grief and said, “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”
Grief and bitterness are not unchristian. We are allowed and free to feel grief and even bitterness. Naomi’s feelings were not final and they will not be final for us. Hope allowed her to keep moving forward to eventually have eyes to see a God that redeems and gives hope. May our eyes be open to hope this day.
Prayer
Thank you for the freedom to acknowledge all that we feel, that we can cry out in rage or pain and you are not surprised or dismayed. Yet, we know we have a hope that coexists beside our feelings and allows us to move forward. Thank you that in the midst of our feelings you are still God and are still redeeming our stories.