Beauty from Brokenness

Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. —Ruth 1:16

In the book of Ruth, Elimelech, Naomi, and their sons, Mahlon and Chilion, fled a famine and found refuge in Moab. What they expected to be a short stay turned into a decade of grief.

First Elimelech died. Then Mahlon and Chilion died, leaving widows Ruth and Orpah. When Naomi heard the famine in Israel had ended, she decided to go home but urged her daughters-in-law to stay. Yet Ruth refused to leave. Clinging to Naomi, she promised lifelong love and loyalty. With Ruth at her side, Naomi turned home.

This narrative of suffering is a breathtaking account of God’s care and provision—a reminder of His ability to redeem losses in a broken world. God used these events to bring Naomi back to Bethlehem. In His providence, God went before her, making provision, for they “arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest” (v. 22). That was just the beginning. God would meet their needs in ways they couldn’t have envisioned.

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You Can Trust God to Write Your Story

©2019 Revived Hearts Foundation and Robert D. Wolgemuth

Scripture taken from The CSB