The Hope of Overmorrow: Yesterday

Beloved People of God,

Every year during the festival of Weeks, the time more commonly known as Pentecost, the people of God would read the little book of Ruth. Annually they would take this short story from their past and listen to it again as it spoke into the current realities they were facing as well as the unknown, unseen possibilities of the future. Starting Sunday, we will walk in the fullness of Pentecost, reflecting on the story of Naomi and Ruth and what their Spirit-inspired story reveals to us about yesterday, today, tomorrow, and overmorrow. 

Most likely, you’re well-acquainted with the first three time orientations, but that fourth might be new. Always a fan of a nuanced word, I stumbled across the Old English word while praying about this series. Overmorrow, in its simplest definition, is the day after tomorrow. Why did we ever stop saying it!? That little word lit my brain on fire!

As I read and reread Ruth, I watched these four time stamps come alive. I found my soul kindled by the bright fire of overmorrow, illuminating hope beyond the horizon of tomorrow. But we only arrive at overmorrow by walking through yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We all, like Naomi and Ruth, have painful stories in our past. Our yesterday’s tragedies can easily swallow up any hope we might have for the future. Ruth 1 does not shy away from the lamentable story of yesterday. It lays the weight of the past heavily on our shoulders with all its grief and tragedy. But it does not leave us there. Before we arrive at today, there is a glimpse, a glimmer…a hope of overmorrow.

For His Name’s Sake,

Brett