Naomi's honesty

“I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty...” Ruth 1:21

Naomi’s arrival back to Bethlehem should have been a sweet homecoming for her. Old friends waited anxiously to greet her. And neighbors wanted to hear news of her family. As these old friends greeted her, Naomi abruptly stops them. “Do not call me Naomi (pleasant), call me Mara (bitter) for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 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?” (Ruth 1:20-21)

We often treat Naomi poorly as we retell her story to others. She has a bad reputation of being an angry and bitter woman. We wonder why she can’t be more like Ruth who trusts God in the midst of uncertainty and tragedy. But if we look closer at the story, we cannot help but feel Naomi’s pain. She has lost both her husband and her sons. And as a woman in the ancient world, she has no hope of providing for herself. She is empty. She is bitter. And she declares her feelings honestly before her old friends and before her God.

When our lives are filled with uncertainty, afflictions, and tragedy, we sometimes hide our true feelings from the world. Not wanting to let others into our personal pain and not wanting to betray our less-than-perfect feelings about God, we pretend that everything is fine. We sometimes pretend in front of God too. Praying prayers than are “righteous” but not true. Saying all the right words that don’t match our feelings of pain and affliction. Not wanting to ask God, “Why me?” The story of Ruth and Naomi is beautiful because it contains so much of the real, emotional pain we often feel but don’t always express. Naomi has real pain and heartache in her life. She feels afflicted by God but her feelings do not threaten God’s eternal love for her. God hears Naomi’s anger against Him and provides grace, healing, and redemption for her.

And Naomi is not alone in her pain. Scripture is full of people crying out to God. The psalms’ authors embrace feelings of God’s affliction and true depression (Psalm 66:11). Job cries out in confusion over the tragedy that has come upon him (Job 6:4; 16:12).  And God hears and knows our true and imperfect feelings as well.  

True freedom does not exist in a “perfect” world where we never feel grief, loss, or disappointment with God. True freedom exists in Christ. Where we’re known and loved despite our ability to always see and testify to God’s hand at work in our afflictions. God understands our feelings in our successes and our disappointments.  He comforts us when we hurt and He can handle our less than perfect feelings, even when they are directed at Him. There is freedom in living honestly before God because we see His hand of grace as He works to redeem our dark situations. And when we live honestly, others see His hand of redemption too. And together we can glorify God as He works out His plan of healing in our lives.