Sample devotional from
Faith Builders from Around the World
Collected and Edited by Beverly Caruso
I went to Samoa as a bride of only two weeks. As base leaders we cherished our times alone together. About eight months after our wedding we went to the beach near the village of Fagalele. From the shade of a coconut tree I watched Dave snorkel.
After several hours of relaxation we packed up our gear and headed home. When we reached the pickup truck I noticed Dave’s wedding ring wasn’t on his finger and asked him about it. Our rings were a matching set, with a tiny cross of diamonds on each one. We knew that finding a lost ring was unlikely in the pounding surf, the coral, shells, and sand. Yet we had to at least look.
After about thirty minutes we gave up and drove home with sad hearts. We struggled with the loss of this small, yet precious token of our love for one another. We knew it was only symbolic, that a ring doesn’t keep a marriage strong, and yet.. It seemed God wanted to teach us yet another thing about surrender.
Two weeks later we returned to the same beach with other young people. I kept thinking, somewhere in that big Pacific Ocean is Dave’s ring. Only God knows exactly where. After the guys snorkeled for about an hour Dave brought me a handful of pretty sea shells. Secretly I wished it were his ring that I was admiring.
Then he brought his other hand forward. In it lay his wedding ring! He said all the guys had looked for the ring for over an hour. At last they gave up. He told me he prayed that if God wanted the ring to be found, to please put it right in front of his eyes.
Just before he got out of the water Dave saw a pretty shell and reached below the water’s surface to pick it up. While putting the shell in his pocket his eyes seemed glued to what his mind was having difficulty believing. Just as he had prayed, the ring was right before his eyes.
It’s only Your loving care, Father, that helps us when we’re helpless.
—
by Lydia Hall, a citizen of the Netherlands, ministers together with her husband, David, an American, in New Zealand.
Exerpted from Faith Builders from Around the World, YWAM Publishing
© Beverly Caruso