Please welcome back for the SECOND time, my dear friend, Lisa Beavers!
***

It was Valentine’s weekend. It was also the same month that marked 10 years since my
husband had gotten down on one knee, opened up a box to reveal a princess
cut solitaire diamond, and asked me to marry him.



Not the actual ring 😉

My
heart plunged. One minute I was a happy storyteller, the next a devastated wife who had lost
the jewel that cost my husband so much. For all the
places I had been that night, finding a diamond would literally be like
finding a needle in a haystack. The next day I went through the motions
of hope, called all the places I had been, and reported the loss of
the diamond on the crazy chance it would be found. One woman I
talked to basically laughed at me for ever thinking I would find it, and hung
up on me. Others were more compassionate and sincere while promising to
look for it. Who was I kidding? I knew it would take a
miracle to bring my diamond back onto my finger. I shared the story
woefully with some ladies in my church family at a brunch the next day,
and one of them said, “Well, you never know what God might be up to
here. He is all about showing us how He cares for even the smallest
details of our life, and He is also able to do what seems impossible.”

On the way home, I decided for the first time to
really pray about the whole thing. Honestly, I didn’t even think to
pray about finding it because it just seemed SO impossible. As I
prayed, something truly beautiful happened. I started out by
telling God I believed He was capable of helping me find my
diamond. I told Him I believed He knew exactly where that little
shining gem was. I asked Him to redeem this sad story, and bring about
something of value. I just couldn’t bear the thought that this was a
senseless loss that would have no redemptive meaning. Even if I never
found my diamond, I asked that He would redeem this loss, and bring
about something good and beautiful for me. I couldn’t shake the feeling He had something for me to discover in all of this. I asked Him
to show me. It was then I heard myself say to
Him, “God, you are more precious to me than diamonds”. Then the
tears slid down my face, and with the tears came this incredible
deep down peace as I let go. If I only had Jesus, I truly didn’t need a single other thing in this
life. Suddenly the diamond lost it’s value as my relationship with the
Creator of the Universe found it’s rightful place in my heart as the
MOST PRECIOUS THING!!

Oh readers, if I could somehow communicate the joy that filled my heart,
you would be able to believe me when I tell you I told God “It’s
ok if I never find my diamond again. If it took me losing a
diamond to re-discover my love for You, and to be reminded I can be
fully satisfied in You, it was WORTH IT.”

THIS is the climax of this story. Finding my SATISFACTION AND JOY
IN MY CREATOR. The way He romanced my heart back to Him so I was
too in love with Him to be caught up in the loss of a diamond.

The climax of the story is NOT that He allowed my fingers to brush up
against something small and hard and sparkly a few days later in the
folds of my purse. It is NOT that my original diamond was returned to
me and is now re-set (in a much sturdier setting!!) on my finger. No, my
diamond is now all the more valuable to me BECAUSE ITS LOSS GAVE ME
SO MUCH MORE as I fell in love with my Jesus again.

Engagement Day- February 28, 2006 =)