Grace Does Not Keep Score

Ruth 1:20 – “Please don’t call me Naomi anymore,” she insisted.  “Instead call me Marah.”

Have you ever found yourself in a bad situation, and you have a nagging feeling you caused it?  Naomi was in a situation like that.  She was married to an important man in Bethlehem.  When famine came, they had the means to move so they went to Moab.  Moab was a region Israelites were expected to avoid due to widespread idolatry.  In the years to come, Naomi lost the men in her life and became destitute. 

We can only imagine the nagging doubts that Naomi must had.  ‘Perhaps we should have stayed in Bethlehem.  Perhaps we should have had faith that God would provide in the midst of famine.  Perhaps we should have forbidden our sons from marrying Moabite women.  Perhaps we should have been more committed to Jewish laws.  Perhaps it’s my fault that I lost everything.’

We don’t know what tortured thoughts Naomi must have had, but we do know that it effected how she saw herself.  She announces a name change.  She no longer wanted to be known as Naomi, which means ‘pleasantness’.  Her loss altered her identity.  She wanted to be called Marah, which means ‘bitter’ because God had dealt with her harshly. 

As the story unfolds, we find that regardless of how Naomi ended up in her situation, God wasn’t keeping score.  God simply operated in grace to set a redemptive plan in motion based on the one thing she still had in her life.  She had Ruth, her faithful daughter-in-law, who vowed to never leave her.  To amplify the point even more, Ruth’s name means ‘compassionate friend’. 

Naomi’s story is a reminder that hard times will come.  When they do, it’s important to see bitterness as a season, not an identity.  Despite hardship, perhaps God is still at work behind the scenes.  In those times, let’s not discount the value of loyal friendships.  We all need companions to help us navigate through bitterness to find the sweetness life offers.

As we close, I invite you to meditate on this prayer.

Lord, help me be a trustworthy friend to the people in my path, especially to those in vulnerable situations.  Thank you for being the most loyal friend I could have.  No matter what my circumstances look like, help me remember that you are working things out.