“Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer!” —Ruth 4:14
Abandonment. Rejection. Discouragement. These are painful experiences. But the Lord can use the most difficult chapters of our lives to write a different story, full of hope.
We see God’s redeeming grace in the Old Testament in the life of Ruth. She was newly widowed and chose to stay with her mother- in-law, Naomi, also a widow.
God used their losses to bring them to Bethlehem where Ruth met a man named Boaz. Boaz showed Ruth kindness and married her. And Jesus, the Redeemer, was born from this family line.
Distressing as they were, the calamities experienced by Ruth and Naomi were not ultimate. At times these grieving women must have felt that their story was over. But their losses set the stage and provided a platform for God to continue writing His Story of redemption, as He does in all our sorrows.
When tragedy seems to reign, you can trust that the God who writes the best redeeming stories is at work in your story.
Make it Personal
Pray about the painful circumstances you’re experiencing, and ask God to use them to write His story of redemption in your life.