“’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.’ So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.’” Ruth 1:20-21

Dear Heavenly Father, How easily I can judge my situation by the laws of justice that you have etched in my heart. If I run into a string of misfortune, I feel that my good life has been ignored by you and that you are bringing down the hammer on me without respect to any good thing I have done. I get angry out of a sense of fairness. I struggle to understand my situation based on right and wrong. Naomi had the very same feelings. She felt that you had dragged her into court and had accused her to yourself. She felt only your wrath. I don’t blame her. I understand her. But you were up to something much bigger than your puny law. You were up to grace, grace for Naomi, for me, even for all people. I love how in this text you juxtapose Naomi’s complaint next to the simple fact that you were bringing Ruth and her close to Boaz, your fine, godly man. Naomi remarked about your kindness. Help me to hope in your kindness when I enter the dark days of trouble and trial. Relieve me of always trying to understand my life by sifting it through the grid of right and wrong. Amen.

Don’t judge your life by how well you have done or how well God has rewarded you. If you do, you will miss the miracle of grace that sits right under your nose.