Don’t lose hope!

 

 

Duane and I have been married since 1979. Today is Duane’s birthday! He is now sixty-eight (I’m close behind him; birthday in April.) And we were a blind date! We love telling that story! But this story is about his wedding ring. All wedding rings are essential in marriages, not only a symbol of never-ending love, but growing cultivated love and romance and commitment. God’s marriage plans ensue a peace treaty promising fidelity, honesty, love, repentance, forgiveness.

(I have to expound on this biblical truth: covenant marriages. Period: covenant marriages are between the only true and living God, and the man, and the woman. No apologies; no excuses for ungodly ‘marriages.’)

Selah.

Duane’s wedding ring is more than unique: it is a highly cherished possession, an irreplaceable treasure, and most of all, a symbol of holy love between God, himself, and me.

Duane’s mother died too young. Duane was only fifteen at that time. His dad and mom’s marriage had been solid. Being lonely without her, his father remarried too soon, as he had readily admitted. He also had put her diamonds into his second wedding ring. His new wife must have approved (I wouldn’t have like that.) Sadly however, they did divorce. (Much to many peoples beliefs: divorce is not a sin.) Because of this, upon our engagement, he then offered his ring to Duane (his firstborn son.) I knew Duane had to have it. I knew that his mother was deeply loved by him, just as God calls all sons to love their mothers. Now that Duane had this blessing it added more to our covenant marriage.

Selah.

And he almost lost this blessed ring twice.

Once when he was fishing with family on our boat he saw a glimmer of gold fly off his hand… Thankfully (never luckily – we are Christians without stupid sayings and superstitions) it was the shank of the ring and Duane was able to get the wedding ring skillfully repaired at the very same shop where he bought my second wedding ring (a different story there.)

This wedding ring story is a winter story; not summer. This time as Minnesota in this year of 2024 had next to no snow there will still challenges in finding it. That being realized, he decided one day very recently to work on preparing his blueberry plant. After a point he realized his entire ring (not just the shank that had broken off) had completely slipped off his finger. No panic there: not on his behalf nor mine.

Selah.

Both Duane and I had experienced more than one miraculous recovery to lost items. We have also experienced diving healings and physical protections. That’s our God; that’s His ability to bless us! He wants to!

WHAT WE DID and what we did not do:
we claimed it back. We watched our words which have the power of life and death. We thanked God for its return. Remember: this wedding ring was absolutely irreplaceable. He could never find another just like it!

Selah.

Duane made a plan. He knew he needed to check that blueberry plant area (that’s where I thought he would find it.) He also knew he needed to check other areas in the yard (maybe around the truck and driveway also) and the recycling and trash. I started keeping more current recycling and trash in an area far away from the trash that was there when he realized his ring was gone. Duane also bought a metal detector. Every avenue was going to be covered: and, we were going to get that ring back.

Selah.

We called out to God: that is actually the first thing we both did. We believed. We received!  It’s back on his finger right where it belongs! I remember one of the things I said was something about it being back on Duane’s finger, right where it belongs. (I don’t remember if I was declaring it our Father God and worshipping Him, or if I was binding Satan. I know I did both.)

Selah.

Well sir, the first time Duane came in the house after he bought that metal detector he came in telling me he had to get used to using it. His voice was calm and matter- of-fact. I thought (stupidly!) that it probably would take two to three times of searching before he would find it…  Friends: we often think too little of God and much too little of His promises. I know I have!

Selah.

Duane had me snowed!!! No pun here! Yes! Duane had not even yet used the metal detector: he had simply started by going through the recycling. I was shocked (I should not have been!) God is good and He does give us the desires of our hearts!

Our Father in Heaven honors our marriages and blesses us! He knows everything and He knows that ring could never be replaced and neither can our love for Him and for each other!

God loves His children enough to send His Son to bring us home to Heaven. This, my beloved, does not have a ring of truth: it is gospel truth!

Join us!

 

 

SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS REGARDING THIS JOY STORY!

 

 

Genesis 2:20-25
So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

 

Luke 15:8-10
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?  And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’  In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

 

Song of Solomon 8:6-7
“Put me like a seal on your heart, Like a seal on your arm; For love is as strong as death, Jealousy is as severe and cruel as Sheol (the place of the dead) Its flashes are flashes of fire, [A most vehement flame] the very flame of the Lord!

“Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can rivers drown it. If a man would offer all the riches of his house for love, It would be utterly scorned and despised.”

 

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

 

Romans 5:1-11
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!  For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!  Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.