Diamonds and Divine Moments

A few nights ago, I had a moment that makes your heart dangle deep within your gut. I looked down at my engagement ring, given to me by my husband nearly 12 years ago, and noticed that the diamond solitaire was missing. To be more specific, I had reached my hand into my pantry cabinet and as I was withdrawing my hand, I felt the corner of my ring snag on the ballast of the cupboard the way it has snagged on things since it found its home on my finger so many years ago. Only, this time, it felt different. I immediately had a sickly feeling, and looked down at my ring finger to confirm that the pop I had just felt was indeed the diamond coming out. I gasped and was silent for a period of time long enough to cause my two daughters to be concerned and run from the living room to the kitchen to see what was the matter. I explained to them what had just occurred and said that I was pretty sure that it had just popped out so it was likely nearby. My older daughter told me that her Sunday school teacher had the same thing happen to her, and she called her friend, they prayed together, and later that day she found her diamond. At my daughter’s urging, all 3 of us got down on our knees right there by the kitchen door, joined hands and prayed. The prayer I prayed went something like this, “Lord, you tell us in your word that you feed the birds and clothe the lilies in the fields. You care about things so small and insignificant yet you care about your children most of all. In the grand scheme of the world and all its problems this is an insignificant thing, this tiny diamond, but its hugely significant to me. For this reason, we ask you to help us find my diamond whose value is mostly in what it represents: my marriage. Amen.” We sat there for a moment quiet, and then stood up. My younger daughter headed off to find a flashlight and check in the cabinet. My older daughter, in the exact spot that she had been kneeling a moment before, looked down and saw a sparkle. She reached down, picked it up and said, “Is this your diamond, Mom?” We all squealed with joy and jumped up and down with celebration. What was lost was now found. Our prayer was answered almost immediately. My daughters had complete faith that God would help us find my diamond, and that is exactly what happened. It was a pretty quick turn around. It’s wonderful when we have real life opportunities to allow our kids to see the loving power of God. It’s also wonderful when these moments are clean, concise and end “happily ever after.”  Let’s celebrate the times when we get these divine moments, but reality says that real life will often contain divine moments where the answer to prayer is “wait” or “no” and where people we love have to endure trying, painful circumstances and don’t get their “happy” ending. It’s also important that we teach our children that the power of prayer isn’t always getting what we’re asking for, but the powerful connection we have with the Heavenly Father through the process. People of faith die of cancer everyday. People who love the Lord and serve Him with all their being live their whole lives in poverty and never see an end to it. Our lives on this earth are like living on the back side of a tapestry, never seeing God’s grand design for the universe. We only see the little knot that is our existence. Later that night as I was going to bed, I was contemplating all that had happened. I was trying to reconcile the fact that the Lord had helped us recover a diamond that, while it wasn’t large by any American standards, was valuable enough to feed an African village for a year.  It’s a completely unnecessary luxury that I get to wear on my finger everyday. Yet in that moment, God determined that what was best for me was to find my diamond. I’m grateful, but I don’t understand it. What was right during this divine moment was for God to give us an immediate, “yes!” But I know that there will be many times down the road when my kids, husband and I will have to face difficult “no’s” and “waits” from the Lord. I pray that we can rejoice as heartily in all of them.   {Originally published in 2012}