Keep Looking
My mother lost her diamond solitaire 30 years ago. It was her engagement ring from my father. She used to take her rings off in the evening and set them on the arm of an expensive chair they had purchased for the house. One night the ring fell down into the chair. They tried to get it out but had no luck retrieving it. They didn’t want to tear the chair apart, so they decided to look later. Over the years our family has experienced many unsuccessful attempts in locating the ring.
We moved in 1985 to a different house about five hours north. In the move, we discovered that the bottom of the chair had been torn. This made us lose all hope that we would ever find the ring. My parents moved again across the country twenty years later – still no ring. I remember different times over the years we had searched for the ring in the chair. It was almost like a legend – that maybe one day a diamond ring might appear from a chair that was getting worn out and old. Perhaps a complete destruction of the chair would produce a diamond – or something like that. I think sometimes you just hold on to a false reality because hope is powerful and you desperately need to hope in something.
Four years ago, when my father passed away, my mother decided to sell the house. A yard sale weekend commanded one last examination of the old chair. So my sister and my wife decided to completely tear the chair apart, even if it meant separating every piece of the chair. They tore and they busted and they ripped…and with a final rip an object flew from the chair across the room. It was my mother’s engagement ring that my father had given to her many years ago. It was the reappearance of the legend!
My mother said at that time that the immediate reaction of my wife and sister would be likened to that of two 13-year-old girls at a Justin Bieber concert. From a Biblical standpoint, it reminded me of what Jesus said about the reaction of the finder of the lost coin and the lost sheep, or the treasure hidden in the field, or the pearl of great price. Jubilation!
One thing is certain. It is important in life for us to keep looking. If you have a dream, realize it. If you have a goal, reach it. If you have spiritual potential – fulfill it. If you have anything out there that is going to continue to make you work – then go and get it! This is God’s will for us. This is hope. This is living. This is Christ in us.
We sold the chair in the yard sale – price: $5.00.
“Hey, Dad, you’ll never guess what we found…”
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” – Matthew 7:7-8
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