The Restorer of Life

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." Ruth 4:15 (NKJV)

In my previous post, I mentioned a bit about experiencing God as our Master.This time, I want to share about experiencing God as our Restorer of Life. This particular trait of God is showned throughout the bible, in people's life. Specifically, I would like to learn from the book of Ruth. So, if you want to know the whole story, please read the whole book of Ruth (Ruth 1-4).

The story started in the time of the Judges, when there was a famine in the land of Judah. This is the situation of Elimelech's family faced. I know most of us can relate with the situation they're facing. It's a famine, it's a regional crisis. So, Elimelekh made a decision to answer the problem his family faced. They chose to go to the land of Moab and stay there.

It is very interesting to see this family situation reflected in their names. Hebrews, like most Asians, have meanings in their names. Elimelech means "my God is king", while Naomi means "my delight". If you have a pair with such meaning, I believe that most people would agree that the children of this pair would have wonderful meanings. But strangely, the meaning of their children's names are another extreme contradiction. Both of their children have horrible meanings. Mahlon means "sick", while Chilion means "pining". Guess this two children were born in tough times of the family. Mahlon declared the pain this family faced and Chilion stated the torment of grief or having the intense longing.

Now, from the story, we all know that after the family moved to Moab, their children took Moabites women as their wives, named Orpah and Ruth. Turned out, in ten years Naomi lost her husband and both her sons. So, left with nothing, she prepared to go home without anybody. But in the midst of her troubles, she still found the faithful friendship of her daughter in law, Ruth.(by the way, Ruth means "friendship") The reason of her decision was that she heard that the Lord had visited His people by giving them bread.

From a short true story above, I find out how the story of Naomi's family was so easily speak into our lives. If you ever facing a crisis in your life, I believe you know what I mean. And life has its own way to bring crisis after crisis into our lives and sometimes, left us behind with nothing, just like what happened to Naomi. Please remember that this is in the old days, where a woman were greatly depended on the men in their lives for their daily needs to be fulfilled. In those days, a young widow like Orpah or Ruth, would be expected to remarried to continue their lives. While for older widow like Naomi, usually other family members would have to take care of her.

In short, I would like to say that the situation which Naomi faced was turning from bad to worse, and in a longer period-despite the action taken to cope with the problem, the worse situation turned into worst situation. In foreigner's land, without husband and sons, in the old age. Talk about helplessness. Talk about hopelessness. This is a situation nobody desired. Naomi is a true witness to that. She even said that she would be called Mara (which means "bitterness").

I don't know what have happened in your lives, but I believe, if you're still living in this planet earth, then you are not misery free. Many times, when we're faced with problems in our lives, we tried our best to solve them. Then we found out that our best efforts means nothing since we seemed to fight the inevitable. The more we try, the deeper into problem we sink. Eventually, our hearts cried out, "Where art thou, Lord?" Some of us find it's so hard to believe that God is good in such circumstances. Some believe that even though God may be good or powerful, He just doesn't care enough. Others believe that probably, with so many people out there praying to God, God may be too busy to even listen to our own prayers. To the extreme, there are people who just believe that God is not exist. That's it.
What can you expect in such situation?

Reading the life of Naomi, I am so glad that the outcomes of her life is not "Mara", but even better "Naomi". I learned that even in the midst of her difficult situations, God is still working all things for good (Romans 8:28). One thing that really touch my heart is the faith which Ruth had. She confessed,"...your God, my God." (Ruth 1:16) Even in the midst of distress, Naomi's life bring a true testimony about God of Israel to Ruth. I know this is something difficult for us to comprehend. Many of us would dare to speak about God when He blessed us. Many of us feeling inadequate to witness about Him when we felt that our lives are not so 'blessed' at all (especially after we compared ourselves with others who may seemed more 'blessed' by God). Furthermore, we are ashamed to witness about Him when we found ourselves in the midst of unfortunate events. But through the life of Naomi, little that she knew at that time, even though her phase of life up to that point seemed nothing but bitterness, Ruth came to know the God of Israel. Ruth was willing to leave her own family, land, and nation to come into a covenant with God of Israel. Later in her life, we all know the happy ending she found in the land of Israel. Not only later she married the wealthy Boaz, which is a relative of Naomi's husband, but also, she was chosen to be the great great grandmother of David, of Jesus Christ, Our Saviour. And of course, Naomi also shared this great blessings.

In conclusion, what I learned from this four meaningful passages are:

1. No matter how bad our situation is, always have faith in God who is always faithful to us. We might not know His intention. We might unable to see His hands. But we can always assured that He has a plan, wonderful plan for us, not problems. One thing I constantly remind myself is the truth that God is not only good all the time, but He is incapable of doing something bad.
2. You may found yourselves like Naomi, feeling inadequate to testify about God, due to your circumstances. But know this, He is still TRUE GOD even when we face lots of calamities. Keeping a right attitude of gratefulness might help a lot, because you never know what may come out from those calamities, and there may be a lot of 'Ruth's around you who will come to know your God in the midst of your troubles.
3. You could be one of those 'Ruth's. You can't understand why a good God may allow misfortune in this earth. But when you keep your faith, because God is (true) God, no matter what life may bring. Believing that He is the TRUE GOD, who is worthy of your praise and worship. Then, you will see Him as the Restorer of Life, beyond all that you could ever think or ask for.
4. Of all that bad-to-worst situations that may happen in our lives, it is to show us this particular trait of GOD, the Restorer of our lives. The question to ask is not whether He can or not; not whether He wants to or not; the most important question to ask is whether we would allow Him to be the Restorer of our lives or not. You see, you may not know what the future may bring or when it will happen, but when you trust God as your Restorer of life, no matter how bad the situation is, you can be assured that He will somehow, create a miracle out of impossibilities. Naomi had been there, Ruth had been there. How about you?