The holidays are quickly approaching. The older I get, the more reflection I do. It must come with age.
Growing up, during the holidays, I remember the smell of turkey filling the kitchen, along with the aroma of homemade pumpkin bread throughout the house.
The recipe sits in my kitchen drawer folded, stained, and worn, but still part of our holiday tradition.
This pumpkin bread from my mother has been my family’s favorite in my house and is now my tradition. Within my fingertips are numerous pumpkin bread recipes that I could pull up off the web, but they would never be the same as my mom’s.
Traditions are good, but as the years go on, those traditions seem to change. The parents who cooked and prepared the meal are no longer with us, and there are fewer familiar faces around the table each year. Our children have grown up and have families of their own.
Some of these millennials are scrambling from house to house, table to table, or just creating their own traditions. Some children are now living out of state, and that table fellowship of connection is not there. Everyone’s holidays are unique, with certain staples and customs. Times have changed, and many try and hold on to what was.
As the holidays approach, so do anxiety and sadness start to settle in for some.
Why do things seem different as we age? Why do the holidays leave some folks feeling empty and void?
I asked that question and remembered a woman in the Bible named Naomi. Naomi married a man named Elimelech and had two sons who married two wonderful women. These women were more than daughters-in-law to Naomi. She loved and cherished them as they did her.
After the death of her husband, about ten years later, her sons died too. All of these women were alone and wondering what to do. Naomi made the choice to move back to her hometown, Bethlehem. Ruth, one of the daughters-in-law, decided to go with her as well. They had a mother-daughter type of relationship that was as special as if Ruth had been hers, biologically.
When they arrived in Bethlehem, they were greeted by the entire town. She tells the people to no longer call her Naomi but call her Mara. As they are reacquainting themselves with each other, Naomi makes this one statement that was highlighted. She said this,
“I went away full, but the Lord has brought me home empty.” Ruth 1: 21
Her life had changed in so many ways. She lost her husband and her sons. Her security seemed to be lost in this new, unexpected season in her life.
She was in a different place, emotionally, financially, and probably even physically.
Her season of comfort had dwindled as she suffered much loss. The places and routines of her life had changed, and the security she felt as a wife and mother was different too.
Everything was different, but how did she respond? Would things ever be the same?
How do we respond to change when the holidays seem different? For some folks, it is a difficult season that brings back some memories of the past. Memories of loved ones who have passed, are not with us any longer.
Perhaps some are feeling as Naomi did, empty and void.
That happy pleasant journey in life has taken a turn for the worst.
Naomi had asked her greeters when arriving in Bethlehem to call her Mara, which means bitter. What’s that all about? The name Naomi means pleasant. She is literally saying, “I lived a pleasant life; now I am left bitter.”
At the time when she changed her name, she described what she was feeling this way: “Why call me Naomi when the Lord has caused me to suffer, and the Almighty has sent such tragedy upon me?” Ruth 1: 21
Notice how she said, “Why? That’s the same question we ask when difficulties come and seasons change in our life.
Why am I tying this in with a thanksgiving message?
There is the rest of the story. Read the book of Ruth and see how God transformed her life from despair to happiness. She moves from emptiness to fullness, from destitution to security and hope.
Her daughter-in-law, Ruth, marries Boaz, and they have a son. “The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.” Ruth 4: 14, 15
Folks, our kinsman-redeemer is Jesus!
He blesses us through our entire life and in each changing season, when we are young and when we are old. At times, He knows it is a sacrifice for us to give Him thanks and praise when life is difficult. But we must remember to do what the writer of Hebrews told us to do:
To, “Therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Hebrews 13: 15-16
“For here (in this life) we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” Hebrews 13: 14
When we enter that city, we are promised a table to be set before us.
That table will be the best table fellowship we ever had. “What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!” Luke 14: 15
May we give thanksgiving and praise to the One who goes before all things and holds all things together.
KINGDOM ASSURANCE
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