I titled this post “My Precious/Lost” because of Larry’s love for the trilogy The Lord of the Rings.  While reading the novel to our three children, his imitation of Gulum was spot-on way before the movie came out. Gulum throughout the book grieves the loss of his precious ring.

It looked like it was going to be a great day volunteering with others using his expert carpentry skills. This particular day, he woke up earlier than usual to travel to  South Chicago.  Larry is not an early riser. His famous saying is “If God wanted me to wake up early, he wouldn’t have made  sleeping in feel so good.” After showering and getting dressed, he looked over to our bed stand to see where he put his wedding band.  But it was nowhere to be found.   “What happened to my ring? Did you see it?” he asked. Larry often takes off his ring while doing construction work.  In the almost 50 years of our marriage, he has lost several rings often due to a hole in his pocket.   He had been very careful with the current band; it was the most costly one and he wanted to have this one for the rest of his life.

With a heavy heart, he asked me to look for it while he made his way to volunteer for www.humbledesign.org/Chicago,  an organization that helps the homeless by turning their newly acquired empty houses into clean, dignified and welcoming homes.   It was hard for him to be his usual humorous and jovial self that day as he replayed in his mind where and how he lost his “precious”. He checked his truck, his drawers, under the bed, etc. I looked all through the garage and rechecked every coat and shirt pocket, to no avail.  I even called the restaurant that he frequents. The day before he had been chopping wood for our wood-burning stove. I actually went to the spot he had been working and raked away debris to see if it had dropped from his pocket.  I thought of the woman in Luke 15:8 who had 10 silver coins and lost one.  “Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it.” And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, “Rejoice with me’ I have found my lost coin.” The story is equated with God rejoicing over our return to Him.

A few days later when he had given up all hope of finding his ring, Larry put his hand in his drawer to get a pair of socks when he touched an unfamiliar metal object—it was his ring.  We both jumped for joy, our cup of happiness returned—no longer “Glum.”