From Humble Beginnings

This is the last sermon in the series "Ruth: Lessons in Loving Kindness." Sometimes life doesn't go the way we intended. Sometimes we find ourselves struggling to understand why things happened the way they happened, or the timing or the place in which they happened. This is where we find Ruth and Naomi. Widowed, facing famine, lost, struggling with everything. But in short order, they go from thinking the hand of the Lord has turned against them, to singing and celebration. For Ruth gives birth Obed, making Naomi a grandmother. And from Obed, would come Jesse, and David, and Solomon, and eventually Joseph and Jesus.   If God can restore Naomi's life, think of how He can restore our loves. If she -- in the midst of all her grief and anguish -- could find a reason to be thankful, then we, too, can find a reason to be thankful.