Bitter and Blind

Bitterness and disappointment ruin our perspective.  A friend told me an amusing anecdote he was taught in sales which displays the power of perspective.  A shoe salesman was sent to sell shoes to people in a remote area and he returned despondent:  "Nobody wears shoes!"  His efforts were wasted because it was a dead market.  Another shoe salesman went and returned bubbly, his eyes wide with excitement:  "Nobody wears shoes!  Think of the potential!"  The little story shows we can be negative over things which can be a great boon when viewed from a different perspective.

Naomi in the book of Ruth was embittered by her losses.  Naomi, her husband, and two sons left Bethlehem due to a famine and moved to Moab.  Over the course of time her sons were both married, but eventually her husband and sons all died.  When the famine was over in Bethlehem, Naomi decided to return.  She sent her daughters-in-law away to their families and gods, but Ruth refused to leave Naomi.  She was so determined to stay with Naomi she affirmed only death would separate them.  When Naomi returned home despondent and depressed, she told people a more fitting name for her was Mara, (literally "bitter").  Ruth 1:21-22 says, "I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?" ²² So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest."

Naomi had left with a husband and two sons out of necessity, and she had returned from Moab with Ruth the Moabitess who faithfully loved her and came of her own free will.  Yet because Naomi's perspective was fixed on all she had lost, she did not value what she had in Ruth.  She saw herself as empty because she had no husband or sons, and remained bitter despite having a loving daughter-in-law.  Over the course of time I believe Naomi came to recognise the treasure she had in Ruth.  After Ruth was married to Boaz and Naomi loved her grandson as her own child, perhaps she began to see how the seemingly ill-fated trip to Moab actually enriched her by God's grace.  She saw God as afflicting her when He provided blessing upon blessing.  Bitterness blinded Naomi to the goodness of God.

The women of the town came to see the blessing Ruth was, as did her husband Boaz.  Ruth 4:14-15 reads, "Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel! ¹⁵ And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him."  Not all who fear God are as Job who blessed God in the day of terrible news and during a long season of affliction, but may we be those who rejoice in all we have by God's grace instead of being bitter over our perceived loss.  Ruth was better to Naomi than seven sons because she loved her, and may we rejoice over the love of Jesus toward us.  May we value above our own lives the love others have shown us, not allowing our disappointments to overshadow such blessings God provides.  Those who make their hope in God have fullness of joy no one can take away.