Ruth...2...bitterness...

 Ruth...2...bitterness 

I didn’t get very far in Ruth this am...just past the part of Ruth begging to go back toBethlehem  with Naomi...

Here is Naomi, husbandless, childless after the death of her husband and two sons...those who usually take care of the elders...but she has Ruth...a daughter-in-law who clings to her, wanting to continue their close relationship...

Naomi is bitter...away from home...

When I think back of the first of my widowhood, there were times of bitterness, longing for former times, the “way things were supposed to happen”, anguish that was so deep that is was hard to comprehend...ambushes over and over of the phone ringing, a familiar truck, dealing with my children’s anguish, the edge of tears...loneliness...

I wanted to go home, to something familiar,  I wanted  back to what we had lost...I had family to fill some moments but, not all the time...they had their lives and we needed to move ahead...some sought counseling from Professionals, others sought counsel from friends, others cried silently on their own, some were angry-lashing out at anything...we all grieved differently, but deeply...there are still ambushes 9 years later...there is still grief for loss...but there is new joy, new lives as well...

Naomi wants to go back home, a place where family may be, familiar...but she returns bitter, but in the care of 

Ruth...returning in a time when food is available after leaving when there was a famine...in the ensuing times, she helps 

Ruth through “courtship, customs” of finding a redeemer, a husband...both for their land and to carry on the line of their family...

as she finds joy in becoming a grandmother, gaining a son, mothering and grandmothering...gaining new perspective in life, finding new purpose...getting away from the “stuck” in bitterness....

“The women “ who first saw her bitter, see her with joy...I like to think they helped her along the journey from sorrow to joy...through their presence and concern...

Thank YOU that you bring us through sorrow...You hold our hands, comfort, You bring others to help...until we see Joy in the Morning again...

...It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me! ”

Ruth 1:13b

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?” So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth 1:19-22

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Ruth 4:13-17