Heartbreak to Hope

May 20, 2011 reflectinghisradiance

“Why does God hate me?”

“Where is God in all of this?”

“Why is God out to get me?”

How many times have we asked these questions when faced with the challenges of life. When life hurts, nothing makes sense, and we are left with a shattered heart, we often blame God for the heartache. Naomi did this in the book of Ruth. She believed God had turned against her. She lost her husbands, her sons, and her contentment. As we so often do, we blamed God. Yet, the story does not end there. God brought redemption. He worked in that situation in ways beyond her grandest imaginings. He used Ruth, the widowed foreigner, to bear the lineage of Christ. All because her husband and her sons died and she returned to Israel destitute.

God works in the pain. He shows up in the broken places in our lives. When our dreams fall apart, perhaps we must remember the cross. What appeared to be the defeat of everything good, was actually God’s greatest victory. So it is in our lives. We are called to follow Christ, bearing our cross daily. His purposes are bigger than our own.

I read the book of Ruth after a semester of broken dreams. It seemed God was holding out on me, while everyone else experienced the fruition of their plans. Naomi wanted to be called “Mara” (meaning bitter) because she felt God has robbed her. And yet. The beauty of the cross is that Jesus brings full, overflowing redemption to our lives. The cross proves His faithfulness.