LOST THEN FOUND

Last night we had just finished eating dinner and were enjoying a family movie in the basement family room. I touched my diamond rings on my left ring finger, and felt something unusually sharp and pointed. Dreadfully, I looked at my left hand and I saw the empty hole where my mother's diamond once sat within four white gold prongs. The diamond was gone. The prongs were extended and deformed. There was a black hole. We stopped the movie and I showed my husband. Silence penetrated the room as we all realized the hopelessness of the situation. What do we do? Where do we begin to look?

I began asking myself questions - When was the last time I looked at my left hand (yesterday). Where had I been and what I had done in the last 24 hours? The answers to these two questions were endless! I had cleaned showers and toilets, 4 of them, been at the church preparing the classrooms and gone to Worship, fixed several meals in the kitchen, organized bills, played games with friends, been to Sams Club, stripped beds and washed sheets, walked around the outside of the house showing my youngest son which weeds needed to be pulled, etc.! Maybe an easier question would have been where HADN'T I been! The options on where this 35-year old expensive diamond could have been were absolutely endless! The diamond could be anywhere!

The diamond is important to me in that it belonged to my mother. She died when she was only 34 years old, passing away in a hospital bed at home in 1977 with the ring still on her finger. When my Dad eventually gave it to my younger sister, Charlotte, she in turn gave it to me as the first born daughter. The yellowed hospital tape was still wrapped around the silver-colored rings - tape that had been wrapped on to ensure my mother's rings would stay on her ever shrinking fingers. She's gone to be with the Lord now, and the rings have been with me on my left hand next to the rings my husband gave me for many years .

What makes the rings precious to me is that they belonged to someone I seem to forget more and more as the years go by. I have vague memories of her busy-ness, as she worked and took care of family of five. She was an awesome cook - everything was homemade! She was a registered nurse. She cleaned the bathroom sink every day with Comet cleaner. She sewed Halloween costumes for all of us and hosted the neighborhood parties for families. She tolerated my love for Donny Osmond and Shaun Cassidy. I loved the way she sang at church and prayed at the table on Sunday afternoons. I even remember trying to pray at our Sunday dinner lunch exactly the same way she would pray, anticipating her every word, only to be disappointed when she prayed something else. Darn!

Through my teen years, it was VERY difficult for me to hear others speak even the fondest of memories about my mother. I would always cry. You see, I LOST my mother to a dreadful disease. It took her life. But then I FOUND someone closer than any kiss my mother could ever give me - I found a deep and abiding love and relationship with Jesus Christ!

My mother wasn't able to take the diamond with her to heaven, as I won't. But it's a precious memory of her that I am gladly able to wear today. I thank God in heaven for the things in our lives that are seemingly lost, for they cause us to pray and trust in Him. Sometimes the "lost" things in our lives are found within seconds, as this diamond was - other instances may take a lifetime.

Last night, Greg had instantly prayed we'd find the precious stone...I had been hopeless from the moment I realized I'd walked thousands of steps in many places throughout the day. Within a few seconds time I had realized the diamond to be lost, however, I found it on the carpet just below where I was standing.

Whoever may be reading this - I share a favorite scripture from Romans (15:13)- "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him; so that you may overflow with joy by the power of the Holy Spirit."

I believe that in God's economy, nothing is ever really lost. My mother isn't lost - I know exactly where she is. She's with the Lord in heaven. The diamond wasn't lost - I only had to open my eyes and look down, and there it was on the carpeted floor beneath me. I pray the same for you. May the "lost" things of this moment be "found" as you pray and trust in Him!