Unlikely Heroine

A woman who suffered more than her share of grief,  she had lost two sons and her husband in a short span of time. She was in a foreign land where God was not worshipped and had no money to even take care of herself. She would have to return home with nothing to show for herself but a loving daughter-in-law.

I am sure you recognize Naomi from the book of Ruth.  I think I could read this love story a thousand times and find things that I never saw before. When I thought of what or who to share that had a God-sized dream I thought of her.

 Naomi was older and didn't seem to have anything in the way of a God-sized dream, or did she? When she returned home she even changed  her name to Mara because she thought the Lord had dealt harshly with her. (Sometimes I seem to have that feeling as I struggle through some days.) But what she didn't know was that God wasn't finished with her by a long shot. She just happened to know the handsome dude her daughter-in-law had encountered when gathering food. She told Ruth just what to do to capture his eye and it seems his heart. Naomi in her experiences with God and the Jewish ways was able to direct Ruth into the arms of her kinsman redeemer! And the rest is, as they say, history. Not only did Ruth get the guy but she is in the genealogy of Christ! What a God-sized dreamer was Naomi, the one that thought her life was over and God had dealt her a bad hand.

When I look at the hand I feel God had dealt me, with all the pain and struggling that seems to be day to day living, I look at what God can do with someone who thought they were at the end of their usefulness.  My eyes are lifted up once again to the God who can do anything with anyone and know that I still have a God-sized dream to complete. So I don't think I will change my name to Mara but keep the name that was given me that means Pearl. I am God's Pearl of Great Price!