The Vine News

When her friends saw her, upon return to Israel, they shouted Naomi, her name meaning pleasant. She countered, don’t call me Naomi, or pleasant as her name meant, call me Mara, or bitter, for the Lord has dealt bitterly with me.

I’ll bet Naomi was bitter. Here she’d been a dutiful wife, following her husband across the world, and what did she have to show for it? Grief upon grief upon grief.

I remember when I experienced several deaths at once in my family, I felt the same way. Call me Mara. My life seemed so bitter. No matter where I went, I couldn’t escape my grief and mourning.

This month marks the ninth anniversary of my father’s death. My brother’s murder followed only a few short months later. This will be the ninth year since my mother’s life was nearly taken along with them. And though I was bitter then, oh what I have to thank God for since that devastating time: two bright and beautiful children, a deeply loving marriage, healing to some of my oldest and most traumatic wounds, a calling to serve God in my vocation, and share the Gospel month after month on the pages of this publication, and appreciation for each day the Lord brings.

Today, I can appreciate. Then, I could only cry bitter tears.

I am reminded of the scripture that says God collects our tears. He sees and records every one (Ps.56:8).

And thank God for that word of encouragement, because, as David said, I would have lost hope if I had not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

These are strange and uncertain times, and there is only One who knows the outcome for each of our lives. Beloved, don’t lose heart. His plan is to give you a hope and a future, to turn your mourning into dancing, and to trade your spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise.

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.