About a month ago, I came home from a Varsity Basketball Game, where I was watching my daughter, Brooke, cheer. As we were eating a little snack before bedtime, I began fiddling with my wedding ring-only to notice that the diamond was gone! My heart sank. I felt like the breath had been knocked out of me. Sadly, it was gone. More than likely, being swept up by the school custodian. The days following this unfortunate event, I felt so “out of sorts.” I’ve had my diamond twenty-three years. I love my little diamond. It was brilliant. Opulent. That diamond and I have been through alot together. The memory of Rob giving it to me on that very high ski lift at Wintergreen on Feb. 17, 1984, kept flashing through my mind. As he pulled it out of his pocket, that very cold day so long ago, I saw a radiant flash of light. I remember thinking, “No way. He isn’t going to ask me to marry him right now. We are hundreds of feet in the air. What if he drops it?” But, he didn’t. He held it tight and then asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. As we unloaded the gondala, the ski attendants sang “Here comes the bride!” over the loud speaker. It was a day I will never forget.
Well, on Valentine’s Day, my husband gathered my two seventeen-year olds into the living room before school and handed me a beautifully wrapped little package. A hunter green velvet box. I looked at the children. They grinned. Slowly, I opened the box.
Lo and behold, he had a new diamond-a brilliant, very beautiful diamond (much bigger than the first) set on my wedding ring. My heart was overflowing. All I could think was, “Isn’t this just like God? Blessing us way beyond what we could think or say?” I truly expected my husband to replace my diamond……but never in a million years could I have guessed it would have been such a magnificent diamond. Even more opulent than my first one. A friend of mine commented upon seeing it, “Wow, I bet you are glad you lost your diamond.” She was kidding of course, but I did learn something valuable through all of this.
First, to have the prongs of my setting checked at least once a year.
Second, that diamonds, experts say, “have a long tradition of invincibility.” Invincibility meaning, “unconquerable; insuperable.” Insuperable meaning, “That which cannot be overcome or surmounted; insurmountable; as insuperable difficulties, objections or obstacles.” Strong marriages are diamonds. Invincible. Insuperable. Able to surmount the greatest of difficulties. Peter Marshall said it this way, “When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.”
Third, GOD loves us more than we can think or imagine. And, one day, we will meet Him in heaven and it will be magnificent. Opulent. Radiant in splendor.
Fourth, when an obstacle falls in front of me – which happens on a regular basis – I am going to look for the diamond. The life lesson that will make me a stronger person. A mature follower of Christ. And, I will lean on an invincible, insuperable God, who gives strength to the weak.
Have you found any diamonds in a rock lately? I’d love to hear your story.