“In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.”
Here we meet a family of four in the middle of a great famine and natural disaster. The father’s name, Elimelech, means ‘God is King’; the mother’s name, Naomi, means ‘pleasant, beautiful’.
The family unit and the parents’ names stand in contrast to their surroundings, which are scattered and uncertain.
As Christians, we are part of a family – the body of Christ. A unit whose head is Jesus himself, whose name means ‘he who saves’. Paul describes life as a Christian in the body of Christ, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4: 8-10)
Take heart that in everything going around us, we are far from alone.
rev. dr. greg davidson 