When your Diamond Ring gets Lost

Just a few weeks before I was to be married; I lost my engagement ring.
I had gone to my finacee's house one evening (he lived on a dairy farm) and I had given him a back massage. In doing that I had taken off my ring and put it in my pocket because I used some moisturizer and didn't want to sully my ring. I forgot about my ring completely until I woke up in the night to a voice saying, 'Your ring is gone.' It freaked the freak right out of me and I frantically started looking. I thought I might have taken it off when I washed my face that night or doing dishes but it was not in the bathroom or kitchen. I took the bed apart but nothing and I finally had to go back to sleep. In the morning I kept looking. I did not remember taking them off at the farm. I looked for them as did my mom and siblings until I had to go to work. I had to leave a letter on my fiancee's bed telling him the story. I felt horror stricken and sick. I could not focus at work. All my co workers felt sick for me. Can you imagine? I am sure some of you have lost something precious and have looked everywhere for hours! You feel hollow. As days passed and people looked and looked I lost hope. We took the vacuum bag apart, ripped the car apart, looked through every drawer. During that time my friend's mother lent me a beautiful diamond ring to wear in it's place. That was some of the beauty of this lost ring experience. People were so caring. My co workers were having dreams of places for me to look (they obviously felt distressed for me) and I would dutifully look ( like in my sock drawer) but it was not there. My dad decided to pay the deductible for his house insurance so we could get another ring but I asked him to wait until the wedding was over because there was no time for me to get another one until after. The day of my wedding dawned and I started getting ready. I was so so happy. I had never been happier, but there was this tiny shadow of the missing ring. My sweet friend and photographer lent me HER wedding ring for my pictures before the wedding so I would not be ringless. My wedding ring had been designed around my engagement band and so I knew that even though I would have that in a few hours it would look weird. The time came to head over to the farm. I was getting married outside at my finacee's parent's dairy farm. My dad and I got in the car and drove over. As we sat in the driveway for a moment mentally preparing for the rest of the day...my sister in law came over and tapped on the window. I felt annoyed that she would feel it was okay to interrupt this last father daughter moment but I rolled down the window. She then presented me with my ring. So many thoughts flashed through my head as I look at the palm of her hand. Had my friend's fundraised and gotten another one? How was this possible? My dad, gathered crowd, and myself were in tears. It was so surreal! I slipped it back on my finger. The wedding was now really going to happen and the symbol of my commitment was home.
The story goes that a wedding guest (so someone arriving to the wedding slated to start in mere minutes) was walking up the gravel driveway and saw something sparkle. She reached down and dug, out of the rocks and dirt, my ring. She tried it on but it was too small for her :) so she started asking people if anyone had lost a ring. After they cleaned it up someone realized it was mine.
This driveway had been driven over by a massive milk truck at least three times, huge tractors and many vehicles. My ring was ground in deep. 
My ring is not big at all. It isn't flashy, and through the years I have been tempted to wish it was more or bigger or that my now husband would have had to sacrifice more financially for me for the ring. However I am always reminded of the sparkle among the dirt of the farm driveway. I am reminded that the tiniest sparkle is still that. It's a spark of light. The digging up of the diamond from the dirt, the cleaning of it, the joy of it coming back to me, the relief! All that rings symbolize to a couple and that it is with them from the moment they say yes.
 My marriage has not been easy to say the least. My husband and I have wanted to give up on each other, to succumb in the fight against us, to just let it go. This ring though, it reminds me that God has greater things, more for us then what we see now. It reminds me to look for the diamond in the dirt and to not give up. It reminds me that God cares about even the smallest details, the smallest griefs, the smallest whisper of a dream. It reminds me that even though all seems lost He knows where all things are found.
Years later the diamond in my ring fell out. I admit I felt like maybe now I would get a bigger diamond. I felt like there was no way that tiny diamond would be found. However I called my friend and told her I had lost it and I had been to her house that day. That evening she called me and told me she had found my diamond. It was on her staircase and she saw it glimmer to her as she vacuumed. She had spent precious time searching for it and was so so glad when she found it. She told me that she felt like this ring was so special and God was NOT going to let that diamond disappear!
So here it is on my finger, glimmering sweetly at me, reminding me of hope. That hope does not disappoint. That hope springs anew. That lost treasures are found and if you give up ~ God never does.