Since we are holidaying as a family near Lake Naomi in the Poconos, where my daughter has a home in the pine woods, I became curious about its name.

The lake was created in 1895 when members of the Miller family built a dam across Tunkhannock Creek. But it was the name Naomi that carried me away from the peaceful waters of the Poconos to the pages of the Bible.

We often think of Naomi’s story as peaceful. Actually, it was anything but peaceful.

There was famine. Naomi left Bethlehem with her husband and two sons and went to Moab. Then her husband died. Later, both her sons died. She returned home a widow, grieving and empty.

“Do not call me Naomi,” she told the women of Bethlehem. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter” (Ruth 1:20).

That does not sound like a woman sitting peacefully beside a lake. That sounds like someone caught in a storm.

But perhaps peace does not mean the absence of a storm. Perhaps peace is knowing who walks with us through it.

Naomi had lost almost everything, but she had not lost God. And beside her walked Ruth, her daughter in law, who spoke words that have echoed through centuries:

“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16).

Ruth did not say, “Wherever the road is comfortable, I will go.”

She did not ask Naomi whether Bethlehem had good accommodation, pleasant weather, or a reliable food delivery service.

She simply said, “Where you go, I will go.”

It was not merely a promise made by Ruth to Naomi. It was also a declaration of faith. Ruth was choosing Naomi’s God. She was saying, “Wherever He leads, I will follow.”

And that is where peace begins.

It begins when, in the middle of our storm, we stop asking God to explain the entire journey and simply place our hand in His.

Today, you may be facing illness, loneliness, financial trouble, betrayal, or uncertainty. The waves may be high and the winds fierce. But peace comes when you whisper to God, “Wherever You go, I will go.”

Ruth followed faithfully, and God led her to Boaz. She became the great grandmother of King David and entered the earthly family line of Jesus Christ, as recorded in Matthew 1:5.

Sitting beside Lake Naomi, I realised that God does not always still the storm immediately.

Sometimes He simply walks through it with us.

And wherever He goes, let us go…!

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