“³ Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.”

Naomi experiences a double loss. A double bereavement. Her husband dies, then both her sons die. Naomi is left without them.

Sometimes we gloss over suffering. We offer platitudes. Or people offer them to us. Here, death, suffering, pain, tragedy are not hidden, scuttled away for more respectable conversation. Its a story in Scripture where suffering is front and centre.

And we meet a God who brings redemption through it.

In Walking with God through pain, Tim Keller reminds us, “The only love that won’t disappoint you is one that can’t change, that can’t be lost, that is not based on the ups and downs of life or of how well you live. It is something that not even death can take away from you. God’s love is the only thing like that.”