So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Life is full of trials and challenges. If we only focus on these, we will be sorely disappointed in the outcome of our lives. We must focus on the sustainer of life in the middle of the trials, and he will not only sustain us, but he will richly bless us beyond our wildest dreams.
Naomi was a woman who had lost all those things most dear to her, except her relationship to God and her daughter-in-law Ruth. Yet somehow, she persevered through the trials. And God provided her Ruth to help her. Ruth had struggles of her own, but she stayed faithful to Naomi and to her God. And God rewarded her richly. She received a new husband, a new child, and a life of abundance living with Boaz, who was rich, kind, and loved God. Naomi benefited from this too. But even more than that, her name and life, which she once thought was Mara, or “bitter”, was transformed into one who was richly blessed and the great great grandmother of King David, from whose lineage would come the Chosen One, the Messiah. Ruth too, a foreigner, shared in this lineage.

Lord, thank you for your great ways which ALWAYS in the end, BLESS US much more than we deserve! May I remember your faithfulness and may it fuel me in the valleys!