Tuesday was already going to be a crazy day. Although I work from home on Tuesdays, my daughter had lost two important rings on Monday evening and I knew we wanted to attempt finding them and the sooner the better. I needed to do the search around my work schedule, her school schedule, my annual doctor's physical downtown, her induction to the International Thespian Society and my teaching the first night of a women's Bible Study. If that wasn't enough to contend with, my son's car had a flat tire on his way to work and it was easier for me to take him my car and send him on his way while I waited for AAA to change the tire for me. Around noon time I left the house to go to Waxhaw Equipment Rentals. Who would have thought you could rent a metal detector for $25? After a quick lesson in "listening" for metal detecting, I was on my way to the field where the rings were awaiting to be found! The night before when I picked her up, it was dark and she was crying. There have been two rings on her fingers for almost three years. One was her "purity ring" given by her Dad and myself on her 13th birthday. The other was my high school class ring (truly an antique!) that she really enjoyed wearing. The evening event was a Young Life Club meeting and it was their annual ice-cream social kickoff, complete with building human ice cream sundaes with a finishing touch of being hosed down by the Fire Department. Utter chaos, total fun, but not a good activity to be wearing jewelry of any kind. When I arrived at the field the next day in daylight, I was overwhelmed by the massive space of this field and my enthusiasm was dampered when the realization of finding two small metal pieces was going to be like finding two needles in a haystick. I searched for almost an hour. Every swing of the metal detector caused a buzz. Foil paper, buried coins and small fragments of metal in rocks caused the detector to hum. I drove away defeated, discouraged and dismayed. My daughter was anxious to get to the field after school but I couldn't get to her until 5:15 and we arrived back at the field at 5:30. She had to be at school at 6:00 pm so that only left less than a 30 minute window for searching. She grabbed the detector and pointed out a few places that she knew she had stood the night before. I looked on my hands and knees and felt like I was a part of the movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids." I was parting the grass blades with my hands looking desperately for two pieces of round metal. Fifteen minutes later, I heard her yell those beautiful words, "I found one!" She had found her purity ring using the metal detector. It had hummed loudly causing her to use her hands to feel around some thick grass. It gave us hope but time was running out. We really needed to leave at 5:50 to get gas and some cookies for the reception of her society induction. Finally, at 6:00 I said we need to go (she was already late). I looked down at my feet and laying right in front of me was my silver class ring! I grabbed it and began shouting, "I found it, I found it!" We both held each other and actually cried that both rings had been found. We both said that we had "prayed" throughout the day that some how God would allow us to find these rings. My daughter said that she felt she had witnessed a miracle. If you could have seen the size of the field we were searching, you would have felt the same way. So we picked back up with life, dropping her off at school for her induction service into a theater society. I hurried onto my women's Bible Study. Both of us still amazed that we actually found our treasures! Not a whole lot of life's lessons in this day except both of us taking our small cares to our Great God and witnessing that our lost treasures had been found. Whether they were found or not does not diminish our Great God or His love for us, but finding them does cause us to be grateful for what we believe was Divine Intervention to an impossible task. And, I believe that my God delights in doing the impossible.
1 comment:
Beautiful Story Patty!
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