Lost and Found Love
It was a really sneaky, but loving effort on my husband Tom’s part. I was our business bookkeeper, keeping track of all our spending. So when Tom wanted to buy me a special diamond earring and necklace set for our 25th wedding anniversary, he used a buddy’s home address, and set up a payment plan with the jewelry store.
I never knew until on our anniversary when I opened the gift. I put on those earrings and never took them off.
That was 17 years ago.
This week we went to our daughter’s home to help out. Our grandson was having oral surgery and our active, nearly-three year old granddaughter needed to be watched while our daughter worked from home in her upstairs make-shift office. Our son-in-law took our grandson to the surgery.
I confess, I went into active mode. I started by cleaning my nearly 16-year-old grandson’s room. He said he’d cleaned it some yesterday, but well, you know a teen boy's definition of clean. I wanted him to be comfortable when he came home.
Then I played dolls, kitchen, zoo, make-believe princess, blocks, and hide and seek. I was upstairs, downstairs, and outside with my sweet active munchkin.
At nap time, I discovered one of my earrings was gone. I’d always been so careful. I blamed it on my mask and those pesky ear straps. But I could have been more careful. In fact, earlier, I had felt that inner warning that it could be lost if I was careless. Now I had.
I told Tom. I knew I couldn’t find it. I’d literally been in every room in the big home, even the attic putting some things away. It was a small earring.
Tom stood, and he immediately tried to retrace my steps—even down the road where I’d taken the garbage can for pick-up. No earring, of course.
Then, as we stood by the window, he prayed. “Father, please, in the name of Jesus, help me find the earring. It’s a small thing, but it means a lot to us.”
Then he went upstairs, and in our grandson’s room, he found the earring. That was astounding. A miracle? Well maybe not in the miracle category, but for two old married love birds, it was all the sign we needed that God understood what that earring meant to our hearts and he heard our prayers and said, “Yes”.