November 8th

Mara

            So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the Lord made her conceive, and she bore a son.  Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel!  He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.”  Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse. The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Ruth 4:13-17

            How did the book of Ruth come to be recorded?  Who decided that the story of a foreign woman who accompanied her widowed mother-in-law back to Israel and then married a land owner that she met during the harvest deserved to be written down for the generations?

            I am betting that it was David.  Specifically, I am betting that it was King David, after he had ascended to the throne.  I imagine that he called the Royal Historian and told them the story of his great-grandmother whose faith and loyalty had saved a life and launched a royal line.

            Ruth very much saved Naomi’s life.  Boaz was faithful and generous, but it was Ruth who did more than anyone could have imagined to transform the life of her mother-in-law.  Naomi lost her husband and her three sons.  She was a childless widow in a foreign land which was as close to a death sentence as you could find.  She believed that God had turned His back on her and changed her name to Mara, which meant “Bitter.”  There was no room for joy or hope or mercy in her heart because of how badly life had treated her.  She was angry at God, angry at the world and just waiting to die in order to finish her story.

            I’ve known people like Mara.  A friend lost a brother when she was a teenager and lived in bitterness for all the years that I knew her.  I had different friends who were abused as children.  They grew up with rage and fear and bitterness flowing out of their hearts.  I met parents of special needs kids who felt that they were like Mara.  Their children were still alive, but all hope had departed, all joy was extinguished and they were ready to fight anyone, anywhere to let out the anger that they were carrying.  Life can be tough.  It can be especially scarring if it effects those that we love and robs them of the life that they could have had.  Life can leave scars that reduce us to bitter reflections of who we used to be.

            Ruth was not willing to let someone that she loved stay in that pit.  She walked away from the safety and security of her father’s house among her own people to come alongside her mother-in-law.  She worked hard, lived in poverty, and entered into strange customs out of love for that woman.  When she and Boaz were married and had a son, Mara relinquished her bitterness and Naomi was reclaimed.

            This is not a call to have a baby to make your friend feel better.  Rather, it is an invitation to look.  Who do we know that only has room for bitterness in their heart?  Who has allowed tragedy to fashion them a new name and stepped fully into that identity?  Who can we come alongside and love?  Who do we wish freedom for?  A family member?  A friend?  A peer who also has a special needs child?

            Just like with Naomi, there is new life and new joy and new identity to be found…sometimes they just need someone else to walk alongside them for part of the path.

A moment to reflect:

Pray for wisdom.  Who is filled with bitterness that you could love?  Lift them before God for a while and see what happens.