A New Beginning
A New Beginning is a fresh start – an opportunity to move forward, often after a change, a challenge, or a decision to grow. It can mean starting a new chapter in life, like beginning a new job, relationship, project, or mindset. It’s about leaving behind what no longer serves you and stepping into something with hope, courage, and intention. Kind of like turning the page to write a new part of your story – one you get to shape. (source: ChatGPT)
For widows and their children, a new beginning is a brand-new day. It is prosperity and restoration after the loss, pain and tears of losing the husband and father of the home. It is accomplished when the widow and her children relocate to God’s habitation. When God becomes the father of the home, and the defender of the widow (Psalm 68:5-6)
A New Beginning for Naomi and Ruth
It was a new beginning that Naomi and Ruth sought when they relocated to Israel from Moab. They found the new beginning after going through the 7-Step Boaz Process. They found Boaz and hence a new beginning in God’s habitation. It was God’s habitation because they relocated to a city called ‘Bethlehem’. The word means: ‘the House of Bread.
Ruth 1:19
Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them; and the women said, “is this Naomi?”
In this new beginning, Naomi received Obed as a grandson and close relative. In the previous life experience, she never had one. Though her two sons got married for like 10 years, they did not birth grandchildren for Naomi.
In this new beginning, Ruth found another husband, and this time around a son. One which she did not have in the previous life after 10 years of marriage!
In this new beginning, both Naomi and Ruth recovered the ancestral land (and wealth) that belonged to their former husbands, such that their lineage did not perish from the world. They indeed found a new beginning!
A New Beginning for Widows and their Children
There is indeed life after the death of a loved one. There is a new beginning that God can give. God is the One who like a potter moulds a new vessel when the one in His hands become marred. He makes it into another vessel as it seems good to Him (Jeremiah 18:1-4).
When widows and their children relocate to God’s house and begin to follow God’s instructions to guide their lives, what they receive at the end is a new beginning. This is the prosperity promised by Psalm 68:5-6.
Are you a widow or fatherless child reading this? Please do not draw a similar conclusion like Naomi initially did as regards your situation (Ruth 1:20-21). Don’t despair – this message is for you, to heal your broken heart. Do what Naomi and Ruth did and you will find God, hope and fulfilment once again.
In Conclusion…
There is a new beginning after the death of a loved one. Even those around you, who you think are whispering to themselves about you now, will come to rejoice with you. They did so with Naomi and Ruth.
Ruth 4:13-17 says: So, Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and when he went in to her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel! And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.”
Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom and became a nurse to him. Also, the neighbour women gave him a name, saying, “there is a son born to Naomi.” And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
