The Day God Returned My Wedding Ring

Jesus was leaving this world, but promised us that in his place we would have his spirit, a counselor to guide us while we’re on earth. Are we to take that literally?

A few years ago, I lost my wedding band. Remembering how God had helped me find my wallet on a business trip, I prayed that he would direct me to my ring. After praying for some time, I “heard” in my head: Go look for it.

Go look for it. Nothing more; just Go look for it.

Did I hear an audible voice? No.

It was more like a persistent thought, one that was coming from another source and not my own mind.

Go look for it.

Could this be God? I mean, does he actually speak to people or guide them in some specific way?

If you believe the Bible, the answer is yes. Absolutely.

Remember what Jesus told the apostles before he went back to heaven:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. (John 14:16 NIV)

Jesus was leaving this world, but promised us that in his place we would have his spirit, a counselor to guide us while we’re on earth.

Are we to take that literally?

I believe we are. How can we not?

So, how was I to look for my ring? Where would I start? In my quiet time with God, I asked him to be more specific.

But, Go look for it is all I could hear.

Instead of simply obeying, I continued to press for details. After ruminating a bit longer and getting nowhere, I relented. “Okay, I’ll just go look for it!”

In my mind, I retraced my steps from the previous day. I had met a client for an appointment. Maybe it had fallen off my finger while I was in the car. I would start there.

I thought I should also look in our yard. I had been doing some end-of-fall clean up the evening before. I was already thinking, “Okay, Lord, if my ring is in the yard somewhere you will have to be more specific than Go look for it.”

I keep an old pair of tennis shoes just for yard work. As I headed out the door, I slipped them on.

I felt something hard against my toes. I popped off the shoe, turned it upside down and out tumbled my wedding band.

I laughed.

You see, after working in the yard the day before, my old shoes had become caked with mud and I had beat them together repeatedly outside the back door. I learned to do this in elementary school; it’s how we cleaned the chalk out of those large felt erasers.

Unbeknownst to me, my ring had flown off my finger and into the toe of the shoe, where it stayed. It would have remained there for quite a while; winter was about to settle in and I had finished my yard work for the season.

In fact, I may have even thrown the shoes out. Lori makes me do this when my “yard shoes” become too unseemly for even the mud room, and this pair was definitely a candidate for the trash bin.

But, God knew all along that I would find the ring if I just went looking for it. And, he cared enough to show me where it was.

Lost Again

Fast forward a year; I lost ring my ring again!

I prayed once more that God would help me find it; alas, that did not happen. For more than a year, I had no wedding band. I considered buying another one but I held out hope that once again what was lost would be found.

One day, my mom called to tell me she was going through my Dad’s things. (He had passed away a few months before.) “I want you to have his wedding ring,” she said.

I smiled and marveled (again) at God’s goodness.

I had never told my mom about losing my ring. Although I see her regularly, she apparently had never noticed that I was not wearing a wedding band.

When I told her the story you are now reading, she gave a knowing nod and said, “God had a reason for me giving it to you.”

As I write this, I am wearing the wedding band my dad wore for 62 years. God didn’t return my wedding band a second time; he gave me a better one.

What an honor.

The experiences with my wedding ring have taught me much: about seeking God, being still so I can hear him, being obedient without knowing the plan in advance, that things happen in God’s time (not ours) and most importantly, how deeply he loves us.

Our God’s love for us is beyond measure. He cares about every detail of our lives.

The more I seek him, the more I want to know him and the more he reveals himself to me.

I encourage you to unplug from your phone, your email, the TV and all of the busyness of life and get alone with God. Get to know him.

He promises that he will be there when you do. And, what you experience will be amazing!