His recent teaching about Ruth and Naomi stirred my heart.
Naomi returned to Bethlehem carrying unimaginable grief. Famine had driven her family away, and now her husband and two sons were gone. When old friends recognized her, she said, “Don’t call me Naomi -- call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.”
Naomi wasn’t faithless -- she was wounded. Pain had convinced her that her story was over.
But Ruth, her widowed daughter-in-law, remained beside her. Ruth grieved, too, yet she kept moving forward. She worried -- but she also worked. She wept -- but not without hope.
Ruth went to gather leftover barley, as Jewish law allowed the poor to do. “As it turned out,” she entered the field of Boaz -- a relative of Naomi’s late husband.
What appeared accidental was divine appointment.
Boaz recognized Ruth’s faithfulness, protected her, and eventually married her. Their son, Obed, became King David’s grandfather -- and Ruth, a foreign widow gathering scraps in a field, became part of the earthly lineage of Jesus!
Naomi, who thought everything had ended, held a grandson and dared to hope again.
After my father died, my mother was a young widow raising me alone. Our pastor told her, “This can make you bitter or better.”
Mama chose better.
She could have surrendered to fear and resentment, but instead, she embraced God’s peace. I am who I am today because she trusted Him when she couldn’t see how the story would unfold.
Bitterness says, “My life is over.”
Faith says, “God is still working.”
Choosing better doesn’t mean denying grief or pretending pain doesn’t hurt. It means refusing to let suffering write the final chapter.
Perhaps you’re standing in a barren field today, gathering only enough strength for the next step. Keep going. Your Boaz moment, new beginning, or unexpected restoration may already be growing beyond your sight.
Anxiety whispers, “It’s all over.”
But faith answers, “Hold on -- God’s Master Plan is still in progress!”
#ruthandnaomi #GodsMasterPlan #bitterorbetter
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