Naomi
said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to
have
any more sons, who could become your husbands?
Return home, my daughters; I
am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for
me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew
up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more
bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
19“So the
two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in
Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women
exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
“Don’t
call me Naomi” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has
made my life very bitter. I went away
full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why
call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the
Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
[Ruth 1: 11-13 & 19-21]
Naomi was overwhelmed by all that had been going on in her life, several hard years had taken it's toll.
Leaving her country, a
famine in the land, the death of her husband and sons, returning to her country
and having to face her community – to explain (at least in part) all the hurt
she was experiencing, and feeling abandoned by all but her foreign daughter-in-law.
We’ve all been in places where life has taken a toll on us. Causing us to define and see ourselves
through the lens of our circumstances. I know I have.
That’s where Naomi was. “Don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara [Bitter]”.
“Don’t call me _______, call me addicted, depressed, angry, sick, abused,
alone, broken…”
May we learn from Naomi that our circumstances, though they may be
overwhelming for a season and time, are not our identity. That we do not have
to let them become our identity.
One thing that struck me lately is that Jesus as a young Jewish
boy would have read and learned scripture to learn about History, His ancestors
and…Himself. His own identity.
As we age and mature, there are parts of ourselves we are able to
understand more fully and Jesus – in His humanity - did that too.
Jesus learned, asked questions in the temple, “grew in wisdom”
(Luke 2:52) and knew as He searched Scripture that He would be pierced,
crushed, persecuted, killed.
Those were the circumstances that faced Him, what He went through.
And yet when we describe who
Jesus is, we say “He is holy, merciful, righteous, just, powerful, glorified, good!”
That is His identity.
That doesn’t mean the circumstances of our lives; what has
happened to us, whether good or bad, is unimportant, brushed over or forgotten. May we not fall into the outlook of Naomi.
Our identity can be found in the same place that Jesus knew His
was, in the Father and in the scriptures - as hard as it is to believe some days.
Don’t call me… addicted, depressed,
angry, sick, abused, alone, broken
“Call me… redeemed,
justified, joyful, forgiven, chosen, loved, holy”
