You Can Go Home Again

You Can Go Home Again

Naomi

Read: Ruth 1:1-7

Brandy checked the odometer and rubbed her neck—two hundred miles left to go. My life could be a country song, she thought. As the car sped down the interstate, her mind sped through the past eight years. She’d taken off for New York fresh out of high school, bursting with the dream of a dancing career. Now, after too many failed auditions and failed relationships, money worries and lonely nights, Brandy was fresh out of dreams and was headed back to her hometown. She didn’t know what her future held, but at least she would be in a place where people knew her name.

The woman in today’s Bible passage made the same decision as Brandy. When a severe famine struck Israel, Naomi and her husband had moved to Moab, probably intending to stay for just a while. Ten years later, Naomi’s husband and two sons had died, leaving her a destitute widow with no means of support and protection. Naomi must have regretted their decision to move to a culture filled with the detestable heathen practices of idol worship. Would God ever bless her again? When she heard that back in Israel the famine had eased, she knew what to do—she would take the road home.

Sometimes our decisions don’t turn out as we plan, even though they seem like the best course of action at the time. We wake up one day and realize that we’ve moved away from God and his ways. Even if we’re fresh out of hope, God waits for us to repent of our rebellious ways and place ourselves under his authority again. Then he will restore us and give us new dreams. When it looks like the end of the road for us, it’s time to turn around and take the path home. Someone there waits for us, and he knows our name.

[The Lord said,] “If you return to me, I will restore you so you can continue to serve me.”

Jeremiah 15:19