Lord of This Ring

Call me sentimental.  It's very true.  I admit there are some aspects of it that get me into trouble, especially when I am wanting to declutter my house!  So I am working on not attaching sentimental value to things that really aren't useful or necessary.  They are only THINGS, after all.  And I'd much rather be surrounded by the people I love than the things that remind me of them.  Not saying that those things don't sometimes have a very good purpose.  Just saying my focus needs to remain on the truly valuable.

But THIS......Lord?  I had to ask again and open my hand and let go and be taught. 

The last two weeks have involved a lot of thought, a lot of wrestling, and a great reminder of Ephesians 6:10-18.  I wrote about this here.  And in the midst we have been clinging to one another and to the Word, yet feeling darts thrown our way rather consistently.  It has been very evident that we are in a spiritual battle.  Marriages in this country (and around the world, I dare say) are at the top of the list in this battle.  Why?  Because marriage is God's covenant communication with the world about His own love for His bride, the church.

At the end of a really rough week came one particularly rough day.  My Tender Warrior had been "hit" from many sides that day.  Then he said those words....."I lost my wedding ring today."  Down came my own tears and a flood of emotions.  It wasn't just that the ring was gone, though it was that.  It felt like some symbolic attack at a time of vulnerability.  I struggled through my own emotions, searching for how to encourage my husband.  We had a planned date for the evening, so I took Baby Warrior to my beloved rocking chair to settle him for bed, and I prayed.  I believe God said to me, "Think upon what you do have, not what you're missing.  He needs to know your love for him especially right now."

With the peace from that small time alone with the Lord, I could sincerely and lovingly tell Warrior, "I don't care about the ring.  I would much rather have YOU and no ring, than a silly ring without YOU."

It took me awhile to start remembering how many miracle stories we have regarding our wedding rings.  We have each lost our rings at least twice and had them miraculously returned.  And I'm not kidding when I tell you these stories are miraculous.  But I was starting to think that this one might just be outside of the realm of a miracle.  It seemed most likely somewhere on a college campus and I had visions of a poor college student finding it and pawning or selling it.  Not so full of faith, am I?

But I prayed.  I prayed He would somehow return it to us.  I prayed that if indeed someone found it, it would come into the hands of a believer and an honest person who would at least make an honest effort to find its owner.  I prayed to have it back most of all because, in the midst of this challenging time, I felt keenly of how much I wanted our marriage to stand as a testimony in this dark world full of broken relationships that there IS such a thing as covenant commitment and lifetime love.  I know it is merely a ring and a token.  And not even everyone wears a wedding ring.  But to me, in this world of brokenness, the token means something powerful.

Over the next few days I kept reflecting on the moment I put that ring on his finger, declaring my forever love for him.  Even more so, I kept hearing the words of our pastor at the time, who married us.  He gave such meaning to our ceremony all throughout it, that I have never forgotten his words.  I heard him giving his own testimony that he said he would never wear a ring, but that when he married his wife he changed his mind.  He wanted the world to know that he had a special relationship with one person in the whole world that can never be broken.  And that it was a symbol of Christ's love, which is unbroken for his bride.

The last time Warrior lost his ring, it was while hiking a mountain.  Ironically, it was a mountain in the town in which we were married!  How we got it back was nothing short of a miracle.  Since he was hiking a mountain, and it was in the era of the "Lord of the Rings" films (and my husband is a GREAT fan of LOTR, both the books and films), I came to affectionately say that God had shown Himself to be the true Lord of the Ring for us.

I recalled that and I prayed.  We would pray together at night, sometimes in tears, that God might once again return it to us.  But with each day, it grew easier to resign ourselves to thinking we might not see it again.  I had even started thinking about what I would do to creatively replace it.  But I so wanted that confirmation from Him and I so wanted the miracle.

The next morning, Warrior was making his lunch for work.  He opened his lunchbox and there it was!!  He was convinced that he had lost it amidst his gym workout and he had last remembered it in his pocket (yikes, now I'm starting to hear Smeagle/Gollum saying, "pocketses!").  It was a shallow pocket and so he figured it just had to have fallen out somewhere by accident.  He has no idea how it could have landed in his lunchbox.  He even took the same lunchbox to work the previous day and had not seen it in there, but had searched everywhere around his office for it.  After four days, my Beloved's wedding band was back on his finger and oh, how delighted we were and how thankful we are that He chose to give it back to us!

Most of all, I felt this amazing confirmation from the Lord, again telling us He wants us to stand firm as a testimony of what marriage is intended to be, showing us He cares about the smallest of things in our lives, and saying once again that He is indeed the Lord of This Ring...the Lord of This Marriage.