He Never Lost You

I don’t know if it was my hormones or just my crazy personality, but I cried the entire drive home.


I mean I wept ugly tears.


We had been at church camp for the week and the very day we were to leave and return home, my wedding ring went missing. My four children were old enough to be campers, but my two nieces were not. They had been staying with Mike and I in our tiny room all week. Needless to say~ between the rainy weather that caused an over abundance of muddy clothing and the wet towels strung around the room, the sleeping bags and the toys they brought with them~it was almost impossible to find anything. I tore through every inch of that room to no avail. I was sure I had taken the ring off and placed it on the high dresser top before we left for swim time, but now my mind was playing tricks on me. Had I actually taken the ring off or had it slipped off in the pool without my knowing? The pool area was searched. The grounds were searched. The car was searched. The room was searched.


And then it was time to leave. Camp was over. We had to bring the children home. And I wept.


A wedding ring is a symbol of never ending, eternal love. The ring has no beginning. No ending. It is continual. And I had lost it.


Once we were home, I needed to be alone. My poor nieces and nephews had never been so quiet (or so good). Even my own kids were somber. I stole away to my cellar and muttered that I would be doing the mounds of laundry that were always accumulated after a week at camp. As I poured out one big garbage bag of laundry after another, something caught my eye. A glimmer of hope amidst the dirty items that lay in piles on the floor. My ring came tumbling out right along with the mess of it all. It had been there all along. And once again I cried. I fell to the floor and wept ugly, grateful tears.


I can still see that big black garbage bag. I can picture my ring inside among it all, and as I look back on that story I can see such a picture of Christ in my life. When I mess up over and over again and feel like a failure. When I allow my mind to play tricks on me and believe that God must be so disappointed in me. When He seems so far away and I feel completely lost in a darkness that seems to enfold me~ and when I fall on my knees and pour it all out to Him among ugly tears~ I find that He has always been there. Right there in the very middle of my mess.


I just lost sight of Him.
He never lost me.


I’m very sentimental when it comes to certain things, especially things that hold beautiful memories for me. I guess that’s my crazy personality. I know that others might think that “things” don’t hold eternal value, but I believe God often blesses us with beauty simply because He loves us~and in the loving we feel His presence~and that does have eternal value. It can change a person’s entire outlook on life.


My ring isn’t just a ring to me. When I look at it, a lifetime of memories flood over me. Some have been incredibly hard but most have been incredibly beautiful.


God’s love is just like that. It’s an eternity of love. It has no beginning and no ending. It is constant and continual. Our life here on earth might not always be easy. There will be hard times and in the darkness we might lose sight of the fact that God has never left our side. Let me give you a glimmer of hope today. Cry out to Him. Let the ugly tears flow. Let it all coming pouring out and never forget sweet friend~


He’s always been right there.
Right in the middle of it all.
You might have lost sight of him
But He never lost you~


And He never will.