House Fire

Ever been asked that question "If your house was on fire, and everyone was out safe, what three things would you rescue?" I have, and I've always given what I thought were well-considered answers. Photos of my kids, the bookshelf my grandpa built, my Bible. Well, the past two months have taught me this: I was wrong.

Somewhere around Christmas time, I lost my wedding rings. Now, this would be a tragedy for any wife, but I was in particular angst since the wedding bands my husband and I wear also belonged to my grandparents. These small gold circles already represent 50 years of commitment, love and honor. Add to those the 8 that we have worn them, and you have almost 60 years of history wrapped up in these rings. And I lost them.

I had recently put them on a chain around my neck. Pregnancies and arthritis have made it impossible to wear them on the intended finger, and although I can wear them on my pinky early in the day, by evening my hands are swollen so much that the rings cut off my circulation despite their relocation to the smallest digit. So, I decided the best and safest thing was to put them on chain so I wouldn't need to remove them and possibly misplace them. It was right after this decision that they went missing.

I mean, MISSING. I searched in the couch cushions, under the kids beds, in the laundry, behind and under every piece of furniture. I vacuumed the vents in case they had fallen down a register. I scoured my entire house. The lint trap in the dryer, the toy box, the top of the fridge. I prayed for my rings to return. After weeks of ineffective efforts, and bursting into tears every time a Kay Jeweler commercial came on, I began to wonder if they had been stolen. I was SURE I knew right where I had put that chain the last time I had taken it off...it would have been an easy target just hanging there.

You can't put a price on a person, but if you measured my value in money it couldn't be more than the diamond my husband gave me when he proposed. It is by far the most expensive thing I have ever actually owned (since our house, of course, is still technically owned by the bank). And although love is even more impossible to price than a person, I truly think that these wedding bands represent more heartache, and happiness, sacrifice and joy than any other objects we possess. Other than my children, they are the greatest gifts I have ever been given. And they were gone. Absolutely GONE.

Recently, my sweet spouse snaked the drains in the bathroom. The sinks have gone from slow flow to no flow in the past few months, and I have been on him to fix them. I confess to a secret hope that somehow inside one of the P-traps, there would be my rings. Well, they weren't there, but in the midst of handling this task on his honey-do list, he decided to make it a personal mission to find the rings. And, he did. Hidden in a cracked tile under the sinks...where, mind you, I had looked before. I don't even care that they weren't there when I cleaned in there a month ago, or a week ago, or three days ago. All that matters is that they are back. Around my neck. Where they have been non-stop for three days. I can't bring myself to take them off.

If my house was on fire, and I could rescue three things...two would be my rings. The past two months have taught me that God knows what He's saying when he tells us "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." I never saw before how truly connected my heart was to my wedding rings. They are simply symbols, true. I didn't mourn their material value. I ached at the thought that so much history and love, such a real and physical reminder of it, was absent from my hand. God has given me the example of my Grandparents, their enduring love and faithfulness to one another, and to marriage itself. God has given me a husband who loves me so much he once poured out all his worldly wealth and put it on my finger. I missed them so much that I was just as excited to get them from him this second time as I was the first.

My third item? I dare not guess. God has blessed me with so many, many good things. I'm not sure I'd know what to choose anymore. I have discovered, though, that I need to pay closer attention to the things that hold my heart, to be sure my treasure is in the right place. How about you?

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Matthew 6:19-21