Age-progression technology helps investigators solve crimes and find missing persons. This innovative software has also been used to predict what individuals will look like in the future, modelling the effects of lifestyle habits such as drinking, smoking, diet, exercise, and stress. If applied to Naomi, this software would show that the painful trials of her life have taken their toll on her, making her look older than she really is.

As Naomi and Ruth enter Bethlehem, ″the whole town [is] stirred because of them″ (Ruth 1:19). Bethlehem is a small town (Micah 5:2), and the people will have remembered Naomi even after so long. But their question, ″Can this be Naomi?″ (Ruth 1:19), suggests they barely recognise her. Her appearance has been considerably and conspicuously altered by suffering.

The Bible tells of people who were renamed to reflect their changed circumstances (e.g. Genesis 32:28; 35:18; Daniel 1:7). The childless Abram and Sarai became Abraham and Sarah to reflect how they would have countless descendants (Genesis 17:5, 15). Naomi's parents had given her a beautiful name, meaning ″sweetness or pleasantness″. Perhaps that was the character trait that drew her daughters-in-law to her. But now, Naomi asks to be renamed ″Mara″ to reflect her harsh life (Ruth 1:20). She blames God for her plight: ″The Almighty has made my life very bitter . . . the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me″ (1:20-21).

Is Naomi wrong, sacrilegious even, to accuse God like that? Perhaps not. Naomi uses the title, ″the Almighty″ (Hebrew Shaddai, ″the All-Powerful One″), that God himself used when He appeared to Abraham and Jacob promising great covenantal abundance; only He had the power to fulfil such promises (e.g. Genesis 17:1; 35:11).⁹ In calling God ″the Almighty″, Naomi acknowledges His sovereign dealings in her life; that the tragedies were not accidents, but God's hand had been in each of them. Now, back in the Promised Land, notwithstanding her downcast look, she commits her remaining days to ″El Shaddai″, trusting Him to fulfil His covenantal promises.

In saying that God has made ″[her] life very bitter″ (Ruth 1:20), Naomi is demonstrating ″a freedom of a faith″ that enables her to speak with raw honesty.¹⁰ Naomi is not the first believer to do so. Hundreds of years earlier, the patriarch Job was even more pointed. ″God has wronged me,″ he said, accusing God of injustice (Job 19:6). The psalmists, too, spoke directly to God with the same uninhibited candour (Psalm 22:1-2; 38:1-3; 42:9-10; 90:7; 102:10).

These Scriptures suggest that in our suffering, God invites us to direct our heartfelt disappointment and even anger towards Him. Complaints directed at God, as opposed to complaints about God to others, are therapeutically and spiritually good for our souls. There is room for us to bare our souls, and tell God honestly how we feel about Him. After all, He already knows us intimately (139:4).

Naomi's return ends her journey of bad decisions and disobedience. That ″the barley harvest was beginning″ (Ruth 1:22) marks a new beginning for her, and potentially good things to come. She will soon find out that one of God's richest blessings for her is her daughter-in-law, Ruth.

⁹Warren Baker and Eugene Carpenter, Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG, 2003), s.v. ″H7706″.
¹⁰Fredric W. Bush, Ruth-Esther, vol. 9, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas, TX: Word, 1998), 95-96.