by John O’Malley
“Then Naomi her mother in law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?”(Ruth 3:1).
Now, with Naomi home, it was easy for her to remember the joys she and her dearly departed Elimelech had known in this the land of their birth and the home of their youth. Days of happiness in courtship and as a couple were all about her. She could walk through the town and see places where she and her husband had spent time walking together and wondering what all of their tomorrows held. Dreams of growing old in the land of their fathers certainly had to be their destiny. Their faith in the Almighty had always been enough to sustain them until the famine came. Elimelech’s decision to go away from all they ever knew had come to bear a bitter fruit.
She had eaten of the fruit from that detour in her life. She knew its bitterness. With that fruit gone and the bitterness slowly ebbing, a new fruit sprang up on the tree of her life. This fruit would be a way for her to enjoy the blessings of love again in her home. The joy of love once known in this home and heart must now be reawakened in her daughter by adoption. Naomi knew the joys of love must be rekindled in Ruth’s heart.
Ruth’s devotion to Boaz’s harvest and heart started the matchmaking wheels turning in Naomi’s heart. Naomi wanted to help Ruth discover the hope for their tomorrow; this is revealed in her first words to Ruth. She began, “My daughter.” Her use of the words “my daughter” reveal that Naomi saw hope breaking across the horizon of a new day as her husband’s name might be redeemed and restored in Boaz.
Naomi has called her “my daughter,” now for the third time. She called her “my daughter,” when Ruth took a journey of hope to seek grace in the eyes of an unknown benefactor (2:2). The second time Naomi called Ruth “my daughter” took place when she counseled Ruth about her faithfulness to Boaz’s harvest (2:22). Yet this occasion of calling Ruth “my daughter” reveals Naomi’s desire to bring the hearts of Ruth and Boaz together.
What a thought! Only in the economy of God could delight replace disappointment and death. It is with God alone that one could find serenity after sorrow. The plan of God can write a chapter of marriage plans that make the previous chapter of Mara’s pain to be forgotten. The great-great-great-great-grandson of Naomi would hold God’s pen and summarize a moment like this as he wrote, “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Today’s misery can be tomorrow’s merriment with surrender to God’s Word and will. He does make all things beautiful in His time. Surrender today to His will and enjoy the fruits of obedience in the days ahead.