Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem, and the whole town was stirred because of them. “Can this be Naomi?” After all, it had been nearly ten years. And after all, she was living with so much grief. Naomi’s answer, “Don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara, because the Lord has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Almighty has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
And there we have it. Naomi’s heart had at one time been full of pleasantness, that’s what the name Naomi means, but now her heart is so full of bitterness that she wants a new name, Mara, it means bitterness. And who is this bitterness against? The Lord, the Almighty, the God who could have stopped the deaths of her husband and sons. And certainly He could have, and most certainly He didn’t. And so the questions rage. Why? Why me? If You are God, why did You not do something, why did You not intervene? Why? Why? Why? And those unanswered questions took root and the sweet taste of bitterness grew.
Death, loss, hurt, pain, bring questions, but God is big enough to handle them. In John 11, after their brother Lazarus died, Martha and Mary both said to Jesus, “If You had been here my brother would not have died!” We can hear their questions, Where were You and why didn’t You stop this? Jesus didn’t berate them, He loved them, He wept with them.
The book of Ruth doesn’t end at chapter 1. God is going to walk with Naomi through all the hurt and pain and even the bitterness. He has not left her. The barley harvest was just beginning. Ruth 1.
101 Days to a Revolution 