Discovering The God Who Is Enough
Written by Erin Richer
I believe Naomi’s most pivotal moment in the entire book happens in chapter one. Naomi has lost her entire family—her husband and two sons.
She has been dealt a hard blow. And yet, in her desolation, her daughter-in-law is drawn to her. We learn more about what she’s made of here than anywhere in the book. The most famous passage of the book of Ruth occurs when Naomi encourages her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab and find a comfortable life, but Ruth commits to going with Naomi no matter what may come. What was it about Naomi that would motivate Ruth to stick with her even though her life was shattered and she was bitter with grief?
When Naomi loses everyone and everything important to her, what she wants more than anything is to go back to her people—more importantly, her God. She returns, not because she thinks her life will get better; she goes back fully believing she will be desolate until the end of her days. But she goes back because she knows that ultimately in her emptiness, God will be enough. She is so certain that she’s willing to bear a treacherous journey back to Israel on her own. She has nothing left to lose; all she wants is God.
I love the fact that something about Naomi, even in her desolation, something about the depth of her knowledge and love of her God, attracted Ruth to her. Naomi’s very life expressed to Ruth that whatever was back in Israel was worth leaving any certain chance of comfort in Moab. Naomi’s life in Moab must have glorified the God of Israel. And in returning to God, Naomi was bringing a foreigner under the wings of God. A foreigner whose womb would help to usher in the Christ. But Naomi wasn’t trying to bear fruit through her grief. She was simply living out her faith the only way she knew how when she had nothing of any value to offer. Here we see the sovereign, supreme, sufficiency of God at work in our emptiness. I cannot get over it.
The hardest grief I ever endured was carrying a baby for weeks in utero knowing fully she would pass before I ever got to meet her. I had no idea how I was going to survive that journey. But what I I found myself saying at the end of that road time and time again was that I discovered that God is enough. Through it all, I gained unwavering certainty that if nothing ever gets better, if nothing is ever restored, He will still be the one unchanging constant in a life in which all things are variables, never guaranteed, upended in unforeseeable intervals, shifting sand. It’s not something you can teach others or even describe.
It’s not something you can share. It’s something I believe you can only discover through deep suffering. And yet He does restore, He does redeem, and it gives Him great pleasure to do so.
During that time, I was compelled to write. I blogged thousands of words about God’s nearness through it all as a way of processing my grief. I discovered that in sharing my story and allowing others to view God’s character in it, God was using it as a blessing to others. It was never my intention to bear fruit. I was simply trying to survive. But that is how God works.
When we surrender to His sufficiency, He surprises us with His abundance and it’s never just enough for us, it overflows to those around us. In Ruth’s restoration and abundant provision, Naomi is surprised again by the abundance that overflows to her. When Naomi is given an heir through Ruth, Ruth becomes the lineage bearer of the Messiah we find in Matthew.
We can find rest in the story of Naomi. We can see the hope that is a sovereign God at work in and through us. A God with a plan that can’t be thwarted. A God who sustains and restores and redeems even when we have nothing to offer. That indeed it is when we have nothing to offer, we become the living sacrifice He can use to bring glory to His name and abundant life to the world. In Naomi we see that we can rest and not try so hard. He does the work when we surrender to His sovereign and loving hands.