3rd Wednesday of Advent (December 14) Naomi. Not left alone

Prepare to Listen.  Light the pink with two purple candles.  Prepare to listen with this reminder: Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised.
 
Prayerfully Read Ruth 1:19-22 and 4:13-17
19So the two of them [Naomi and Ruth] went on until they came to Bethlehem.  When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, ‘Is this Naomi?’  20She said to them,
‘Call me no longer Naomi,
    call me Mara,
    for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.
21I went away full,
    but the LORD has brought me back empty;
why call me Naomi
    when the LORD has dealt harshly with me,
    and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?’
22So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab.  They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
 
4:13So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife.  When they came together, the LORD made her conceive, and she bore a son.  14Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel!  15He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.’  16Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse.  17The women of the neighbourhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi.’  They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
Naomi isn’t in Jesus’ family tree.  However, her intervention and conniving on behalf of her daughter-in-law, Ruth, was crucial, resulting in the birth of David, the ancestor of Jesus.  She’s also the main character in the book of Ruth and dominates in the climax of the story, the birth of Obed.  Therefore, I have included her story in these devotions on Jesus’ family tree.
 
Naomi’s story is a sad one, given expression in her lament to the women of Bethlehem on her return home.  During a severe famine, her family moved to Moab, where her husband and two sons died.  She returned to Bethlehem with only Ruth as companion.  She was recognized by the local women of the town who joyfully greeted her.  She responded to them with a lament.  Don’t call me Naomi (Pleasant), she said.  Call me Mara (Bitter), “for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.”
 
But God hadn’t forgotten Naomi and didn’t leave her alone.  Thanks to her, Ruth and Boaz were married and gave birth to a son.  Naomi claimed him as her own, the son who would protect her in her old age and ensure she would not be left alone.  The village women believed the boy would be to her “a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age.”  What they didn’t know is that he would, in Jesus, be the restorer of life for all peoples.  Naomi wasn’t left alone.  Neither are we.
 
Prayerfully Reflect
How can you be a restorer of life to another today?
 
Respond in Prayer
Lord, I pray today for the older women who are alone and bitter.  May they experience you as the restorer of life, the one who never leaves us alone.  Amen.
 
Live Obediently.  Be a restorer of life to someone today.