The God Who (still) redeems

I was in third grade when I discovered the magic of glasses. It was as if I went into the optometrist’s office as one person, and I walked out as another. Of course, I hadn’t changed intrinsically, but I had been given a new lens (or in this case, corrective lenses) through which I could view life.

I stepped out of the darkness of the optometrist’s office into the bright light of the afternoon wearing my new glasses with the trendy blue frames, and everything had changed! It was like I could see the world in high definition. The trees were more than blobs of green and brown. 

There were the trunks, with bark in varied browns, grays, and greens with this rustic, peeling surface that was rough and at the same time, delicate and beautiful. I could see individual leaves, and on those leaves were markings and textures. I couldn’t believe what I had been missing, and I was beyond thrilled to embrace this brave, new world of intricate design and endless beauty.

I was thinking about that this week as I read the book of Ruth in preparation for an upcoming Bible study. You may know the story:  During a famine, Elimelek takes his wife, Naomi, and his family, flees from Bethlehem, and settles in Moab. Over time, Naomi loses both her husband and her two sons. Now that she is a widow, she tries to encourage her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, to go back to their families in order to see if they can find new husbands, since they are still young enough to do so. 

Ruth, though, is determined to stay with Naomi. So when Naomi decides to return to her homeland of Bethlehem, Ruth comes along with her. The passage in particular that stood out to me is Ruth 1:19-21:  So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

“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. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

Now, I have to confess that growing up, whenever we read the book of Ruth or whenever we heard the story of Ruth in church or in Bible studies, I always came away thinking that Naomi was the villain in this story. As little girls, we were encouraged to be like Ruth (sweet, submissive, hardworking and happy) rather than being like Naomi (bitter and unredeemable). 

However, reading through this book again as an adult, I see things differently. Perhaps the lens of a little more life experience has allowed me to see that Naomi is more than the one-dimensional character some of us assumed she was. Yes, she says in these verses that the name Naomi no longer fits her. Naomi means pleasant. Mara means bitter. She wants people to know that she has experienced great loss in her life.

So when she says she is no longer the pleasant, happy-go-lucky young girl that she used to be – well, ladies, she’s just being honest, isn’t she? Considering the fact that women generally married in their teens in that culture, Naomi is probably about 45 here. (Remember how old they always painted her in the children’s Bible storybooks? She was always depicted as literally stooped over with age, when really she was likely the age I am now!) 

But can any of us middle-aged or older ladies honestly say that we are exactly the same today as we were 25 years ago? Life can be tough, even in the best of times. Life does change us. We learn. We grow. We mourn our losses. Maybe that’s all that Naomi is doing here. She’s grieving what she has lost. And she has lost quite a lot.

The other thought I had was that Naomi is returning home after years away. And the last time the people in her town saw her, she was young and full of life, full of love. Here is how she describes it:  she went away full, but the Lord brought her back empty. Have you ever had a significant event happen in your life, one that rocked your world in a way in which you were forever changed? 

And then, someone invited you to some sort of reunion, and and you thought, “I can’t go there. I can’t let them see me now.” We want to be remembered at our best. We don’t want to have to explain to everyone who knew us back then all the bad things that have happened to us since we were young and full of life and hope. We want to be remembered as the life of the party. We don’t want to be the one people whisper about, the one they pity or judge. 

To me, Naomi seems nervous about how her former friends will receive her, returning as a now-childless widow. Would they even recognize her? Worse, would they judge her? Perhaps she doesn’t feel like she can handle their rejection. Maybe she doesn’t have the strength to explain yet again how she came to be destitute and vulnerable.

But she goes. Naomi is frightened and grieving. Her past is gone. Her future is uncertain. Still, she goes. She returns home, with Ruth in tow. Ruth, you’ll remember, is from the land of Moab. And she is going to Bethlehem. People who live in Bethlehem don’t generally like people from Moab. So even though Naomi is originally from Bethlehem and is thus returning home, she is bringing a foreigner with her. How will people respond to Ruth? Yet another point of uncertainty, but the women press on. 

And as they settle in, we see Naomi’s care for Ruth. She is excited at how much barley Ruth brings home, and even more thrilled at the prospect of Boaz, who owns the field where Ruth has been gleaning. From what we read in the book of Ruth, Naomi gives Ruth good (cultural) advice, and Ruth follows it. 

Just from what we read, we don’t see Naomi being grumpy or hard to live with. I know we weren’t there, but there’s nothing to suggest that Naomi was anything other than a caring mother-in-law. (Where did we get all of those bad mother-in-law jokes then? I remember hearing those more than once, how no matter how bad we may have it with our in-laws, we should think of poor Ruth. However, I don’t get that here in the Scriptures.)

From where I sit now, I feel like I’m putting on new glasses. And this story has more nuance than I realized as a young girl. I feel like there is more than one heroine in the book of Ruth. Yes, Ruth is loyal, devoted, hardworking, submissive to authority, and cheerful. But Naomi does the brave thing regardless of how she feels. She pours love into her daughter-in-law. Instead of just giving up, she fights for hope even as she grieves her losses.

Most importantly, the book of Ruth points to our Great Redeemer. Just as Ruth and Naomi had stories that needed to be redeemed, and Boaz filled that position, so God is able to fill our empty places. The good news I would like to go back and tell my little-girl self is that Naomi is completely redeemable. So are you. And so am I. Like Naomi and countless others who have gone before us, our weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5).

All because of a Savior who bears our burdens, both our sins and our heartaches. Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves (Psalm 68:19-20). 

By the way, the poet who wrote the two Psalms I’ve just mentioned was David, the great-grandson of this very same Boaz. Talk about redemption!

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever (Psalm 30:11-12).