No Pain, No Grain

Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may [the child’s] name be renowned in Israel!” – Ruth 4:14 (NRSVUE) 

I’m penning this basking in the glow of a big victory for my city. For the first time in 53 years, the New York Knickerbockers have won the NBA championship. We’ve been through so much. We needed this moment.  

Our cities and towns need wins that can bring us together. The little town of Beit Lechem, which, roughly translated from the Hebrew, means “House of Bread,” closes out the Book of Ruth in another win, after its own recovery from breadless days. 

This is how Ruth begins: hunger in the House of Bread, calamitous. But word had gotten out that God had “considered the people” and restored the city. So Naomi came back with her widowed daughter-in-law, Ruth.  

Ruth went to the field. Naomi saw the opening. Boaz made the case at the gate. And somewhere in the middle was the threshing floor. 

That’s where grain gets loosened under pressure. It is beaten, shaken, separated, gathered. No grain gets to become bread without surviving the floor. 

You know about the threshing floor. This city does, too. So does every people that has taken hit after hit and somehow kept showing up. 

God doesn’t do the beating. God doesn’t pick the team. But God is in the business of restoration.  

Naomi and Ruth were restored. And the story kept going far past their days. Obed became Jesse. Jesse became David. And Beit Lechem became what we know of Bethlehem, birthplace of the Bread of Life.  

So when the floor is hard under you, don’t mistake pressure for the end. God is still gathering what will feed somebody. God is still bringing life from places that looked spent. God is still giving weary cities and worn-out people one more reason to sing. 

Prayer
Source of Life, gather us again. Bless our cities with healing, our households with provision, and our tired spirits with songs to last. Amen.

About the Author
Kaji Douša is the Senior Pastor of The Park Avenue Christian Church, a congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ, in New York City.