Spring in New England

This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:24

New Ride

My husband has been buying old tractor lawn mowers for a few years and has been enjoying figuring out how to restore them.  His newest project is not so small.  It is a 68 Military Jeep.  

God has a sense of humor.  Men are so different from women, yet he draws us together.  This truck is huge (see our 92 Volvo wagon behind it) and my boys are drooling over it.  

Almost every Saturday my husband takes one or two of our children to the local donut shop and then to the cemetery to pray and visit Caleb's grave.  He has started driving the truck to the donut shop/cemetery if he doesn't bring our youngest, which would require moving our car seat into the truck.  If you want to draw attention to yourself drive one of these around.  

Funny story though.  The first time that my husband took it for a ride he ran out of gas at the other end of our street...apparently the gas gauge doesn't work lol.  

 I love that man!  When living in a house with five males, I have found that I need to have a sense of humor.

A Special Song

At church on Sunday the last song that was played on the baby grand was "Be Thou My Vision" .  Please listen (click on the link).  

Our oldest daughter, now 21 years old, once sang that song solo in front of our church family during a service with Caleb cooing in the background.  Someone taped the time of worship for us.  When playing the CD back later, my husband would dance around our living room with the song playing in the background, with little Caleb in his arms.  It was a special time for them and the scene repeated itself quite a bit.

When Caleb died the song became very bittersweet.  To this day, almost 5 years after our little Caleb died, it brings us (my husband and I) to tears, to hear it.

Thinking of you, dear Caleb and missing you always.  

The Rings

Quite a few years ago I lost the diamond out of my engagement ring.  I was not sure where I had lost the diamond and looked everywhere for it, but as you can imagine it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  We searched home and church and everywhere in between as I tried to retrace my steps.  We didn't find it.

I had an idea that I would save the vacuum cleaner bags from the time that I lost my ring until I had time to go through them, in the hopes that somewhere, somehow the diamond would appear amongst the cheerios, dirt and legos that the bags usually hold.

About six months later I laid out a plastic sheet on our deck and started the task of going through each bag meticulously to try and locate the diamond.  My husband was a sceptic, but I soon won his faith when, in the bottom of one of the bags, my diamond was uncovered!

I was so thrilled, as you could imagine.  I brought the ring to a jeweler and they set the diamond again.  When I put it on again at home I noticed that the prongs were not flush to the diamond and it was getting caught on my clothing, etc.  I put the ring back in the box and told myself that I would bring it back again to have them smooth out the prongs.

Years passed and the ring sat in the box.  At the same time I hadn't worn my wedding ring for years because I needed to have it resized.  The rings have been absent on my finger for a very long time.

I decided a couple weeks ago that I wanted to have them repaired/resized.  We will celebrate our 25th year wedding anniversary in September and I didn't want to let any more time go by without having them on my finger.

I picked the rings up last wednesday from the jewelers with my daughter Elisabeth, who is three years old.  I got out to the car and she wanted to eat a candy bar that she received from a woman whose son is the owner of the store.  As she sat eating her candy bar I placed the rings on my finger again.

It is difficult to describe the emotion that those rings evoked in me.  I was so overcome with emotion that I wept as I sat next to Elisabeth in the van.  She looked at my rings and said "They are beautiful!".  She then noticed that I was crying and was very concerned.  I told her that they were happy tears.

Events of the last 25 years flashed through my head...including the most difficult ones after Caleb died.

I thought about the vows that my husband and I took and how deep and wide our love had become over the years.  No longer the shallow love that we had when I was given the rings so many years ago.  God joined us many years ago and he has helped us through many happy times and many trials...some that we still are going through.

I see, when I look back through the years the evidence that God has held us together and sustained us and the evidence of which gives me more faith and trust for whatever the future may hold.  

I will wear the rings with a lot more meaning now that we have been through so much.  I don't think that I cherished them and especially what they represented nearly as much as I do now.

Thank you God for letting me see things in a new light.

“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! (Jesus speaking)   Luke 12:27-28