Call Me Mara

Naomi comes back to Bethlehem after ten years and a great deal of loss. The women of the town recognize her and say her name out loud.

She refuses it. “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.”

Naomi means pleasant. Mara means bitter. She means it literally. The name is a report.

Scripture does not correct her back. Nobody in the chapter tells her she is being ungrateful, or that she should think about what she still has, which is Ruth, standing right there beside her.

The book will end well. It does not get there by asking Naomi to pretend she is somewhere she has not arrived yet.