We’re celebrating our 30th anniversary today which brought to mind this post from last year. For those of you newer to this blog, my hope is that it is encouraging to you today.
This is a story about me. But it’s also about you. Whether you’re married or single, read on.
Today is our 29th wedding anniversary. And 28 years ago today was a bad day.
Our one year anniversary.
We were with family and friends at a cabin, high on a pine-filled shore overlooking a pristine lake in northern Wisconsin.
Cannon balls into the icy cold crystal blue. Double tubing wars bumping over the waves and plumpy only-in-the-summertime-at-the-cabin clouds overhead. It seemed like a good day.
And it was.
Until husband John took his wedding ring off to ski and put it on the pier, asking our friend to watch it.
You know what’s coming next, don’t you? (And by the way, WHO takes their wedding ring off to ski???)
Yep, the ring got knocked off the pier and into the lake, which, I’m convinced, happened to have the finest, siltiest bottom in Wisconsin.
An hour later, the shallow water was filled with friends and family, carefully walking, trying to feel a wedding ring under their bare toes. No luck.
We gave up and all made the long drive home to Chicago that night, resigned to the loss.
Except my mother.
The next day she was on the phone with a couple of young guys in northern Wisconsin who had a metal detector they used to find lost objects. She sent them to our friend’s cabin and they did their best, wading in the shallow water with their gear, hoping for the sound that would indicate a “find.” No luck.
Again we felt resigned. Eventually we went out and bought John another wedding ring. A substitute.
5 years passed.
We had a baby. We moved to Washington D.C. We had another baby.
Then one ordinary morning I got a call. The voice on the other end of the line said, “Are you familiar with the verse, ‘Magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together.'”?
I said, “Of course, that’s our marriage verse, but how do you know it?”
“Well it’s written right here inside John’s wedding ring that I’m looking at.”
“What the what???”
“The guys who had looked for John’s wedding ring with the metal detector 5 years earlier, felt terrible that they had failed. This morning they showed up at our door. They said they had just gotten a more powerful metal detector and could they please try again to look for the ring?”
They trekked down the many steps and waded out into the cold water. It was maybe two minutes before my friend heard whoops and hollers. Shouts of delight as the ring was found.
I share this on our anniversary because to me it’s such a picture of God’s never-give-up-searching love.
He’s the shepherd searching for the lost sheep. The woman looking for the lost coin. The father scanning the horizon, waiting for his “lost” son to come home.
The diver scouring a lake bottom, not willing to give up and live with a substitute ring.
Because He believes there is no substitute for you.
If you’re feeling lost, know that God will never stop watching and waiting for you to turn and see that you were “found” by Him.
If you love someone who’s far from God, know that He’s a never-give-up God who loves your prodigal even more than you do.
Do you have a lost and found prodigal story to share?
Happy Anniversary!
Thanks so much, Christi! We need to catch up! Hope you’re well!
Happy Anniversary!!
Thank you Becky! I’ve had the blessing of seeing many of the Bere’s the past couple of months, but not YOU! Missing you!
I am waiting on the never-give-up-God who has the perfect ‘metal detector’ and the red circled day on His calendar. Thank you for this reminder, Laura, and Happy Anniversary!
Oh Sandy, yes! Hold on to God as He holds on to you and pursues your love one.
Such a sweet story! Happy Anniversary! 🙂
Thank you Laura for this very powerful story of being lost and getting found. I can relate.
Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary! Well, my first wedding band is at the bottom of Lake Ontario. It slipped off my finger in the cold water right around our first anniversary too. I have a new one (one size smaller) since we never found it in the silty bottom….despite getting water logged looking! 🙂 Happily married for 33 years, but the ring has never been found….yet. 🙂
Oh my gosh! I wonder how many rings are at the bottom of lakes! Who knows…yours still may show up, but Lake Ontario??! 🙂
I very accidentally stumbled onto this post through a google search for something very different, but this is very beautiful and just what I needed today. God is good!
Oh I am so thankful that it was encouraging! God IS good! Glad you stumbled by! 🙂