faithful to the faithless

I was reading on Carolyn McCulley's blog this morning and came across the post listed below. What struck me was God's faithfulness despite Naomi's complaining. Even in "Marah" God was faithful. Even through the bitterness there, He turned the waters sweet... How kind of God to provide for his stupid dull disciples like Naomi and me...

---------------------------------------------------
God's Grace to Grumblers

Last month, I mentioned Iain Duguid's commentary on Esther and Ruth. It was one of the best books I read in 2007. There are so many wonderfully wise nuggets in it. One insight I particularly enjoyed was about Naomi. I often use Naomi's life as an illustration when I speak, encouraging women not to survey their circumstances and conclude that what they can perceive is all the God is doing. But I've never noted this particular aspect of God's mercy being revealed even in the new name that Naomi gave herself ("Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara") when she returned home to Bethlehem:

Like Naomi, we may be so busy complaining about our emptiness that we miss the fact that God has emptied our hands only in order to fill them with something so much better. Without Naomi's emptiness, she would never have left Moab behind and returned to the land of promise. Had she stayed contentedly "full" (as she thought) in Moab, Naomi would have missed out on the far greater blessing of a prime place in the history of redemption. She was so caught up in what she had lost, however, that she could not yet see the far greater treasure she had been given in Ruth, a token of God's grace to her. . . .

Even calling herself Mara should have caused Naomi to ponder more deeply the events that took place in that wilderness location, where in spite of his people's grumbling, God nonetheless turned the bitter water into sweet, and thereby demonstrated that he was "the Lord, your healer" (Ex. 15:26). Was that deliverance from their pain a reward for their goodness? Certainly not! It was a landmark measure of God's unfailing goodness and mercy upon an undeserving, rebellious, and grumbling people. Marah was not just the definitive place of grumbling bitterness, it was also the place where God's grace to grumblers was definitively displayed.

For some of you, the turning of the year may have been bittersweet. Perhaps you were able to close the door on a year dotted with loss and difficulty, but you look into the blank canvas of a new year with doubt and maybe even distrust. Like Naomi, you don't want people to call you pleasant any longer. But before you assign yourself the name of bitter, I hope you will take time to ponder God's quiet providence to both the wandering and grumbling Israelites and the despairing widow Naomi. God's grace to grumblers is evident throughout Scripture and even throughout our own personal experiences.

So it is with more confidence in the Father of mercies than in our present circumstances that I wish you the happiest of new years.
original post can be found at http://solofemininity.blogs.com/posts/2008/01/from-empty-to-f.html