With This Ring
Michele and I celebrated our 26th anniversary this month. A picture from our proposal popped up on FB memories that day. I posted it a few years back to celebrate an earlier anniversary. The picture (above) captures the exact moment I proposed to Michele. Her hand in mine, ring waiting to be given. It happened at a Friday Pearce High School football game night, where she was the dance team director, and I was the Young Life leader. Kids had set us up on a blind date a year and a half earlier, and it had all led to this moment.
Thankfully, she said “yes.” The ring was put on her finger and the Pearce Cheerleaders paraded across the field with a 50-yard-long banner that read, “She said yes… Thanks for Your Support… Registered at Dillard’s and Foley’s…. To Be Continued…”
I’m thankful to say that 26 years later, it still continues.
But I want to go back to the ring. During our wedding ceremony, our pastor, Dave Haney, said something I will never forget about our rings. The transcript is below. I’ve also attached 2 minute video if you are interested in seeing dark-haired, skinny Brian and, of course, Michele looking exactly as she does today.
Transcript:
“Now people say a lot about rings… they talk about how they are round, which seems kind of obvious, …. how your relationship is eternal and all of those things. But I’m not going to say that because it’s kind of goofy.
What I want you to remember as you wear these rings for the rest of your lives is this moment. This is a place where time is standing still. All worries are outside of these doors. Everything that it took to get here has faded in this moment. It’s captured in the beauty of this ring… the perfection of this moment.
So that when the times aren’t so perfect, and the things that go wrong out there start to wear you down, and you are tempted to raise a hand or give up, remember the ring. Remember the moment. Remember the beauty of your commitment to each other.
The ring is unique. There may be other rings like it, but there is no other ring that is yours… that you wear, that fits you, that is shaped for you, and most all that was given to you by each other.
So that when you are apart, when you’re stressed, when you’re frustrated, when you’re arguing, when the moments are not perfect, remember the perfection of this moment and remember the beauty that you wear on your hand that captures it. Remember the perfection of this commitment.” - Pastor Dave Haney, our wedding officiant.
I can’t look at my ring for very long today before I hear Dave’s words in my head. I’m transported back to the moment when time really did seem to stand still. I am reminded of our commitment to one another in the perfection of that moment.
My ring reminds me of what the Old Testament calls an “Ebenezer.” In Hebrew, it means “stone of help.” Samuel erected an Ebenezer in Samuel Chapter 7 so that every time they walked by it, the nation of Israel would remember how God had protected His people and led them to victory.
My Ebenezer, my wedding ring, may not be a stack of stones, but it is a reminder of God’s provision and blessing. It is a reminder of a holy commitment made to Michele and the Lord.
I have another Ebenezer in my life that takes me back to a holy commitment. It’s a die-cast exact model of my old 1981 Monte Carlo that sits on my desk in front of a picture of Michele and me. It was in that car very late one night that I drove down Cliffbrook Drive in the Fall of 1982, right in front of Northwood Hills Elementary, that I leaned out the window and said “yes” for the first time to Jesus. Each time I see that car on my desk or even drive by Northwood Hills Elementary, I am taken right back to that late night as I looked up at the stars and said, “I never knew you did all that for me.”
You see, Tonya Prince (now Tonya Riggle), who was a classmate and friend of mine from elementary school through our Baylor days, had just explained the Gospel to me as we sat on the curb of her apartment parking lot, just across Coit Road from Cliffbrook. We were flying standby to Lubbock that Friday evening to see Baylor play Texas Tech and did not make it on the plane.
I’m thankful we did not make the flight. I think that is the best trade I have ever made. I gave up Lubbock to get heaven. Not a bad trade.
So today, my Ebenezers of the Monte Carlo on my desk, Cliffbrook Drive, and Northwood Hills Elementary take me to a place where time also stood still and a holy commitment was made in the perfection of a moment.
I heard Amy Grant’s song, “Do You Remember the Time” not long ago, and it also took me back to Cliffbrook Drive.
“Do you remember the day you first let Jesus in?
How He gently and tenderly washed away your sin
Don't you know that He still cares the way He did back then?
Do you remember the day you first let Jesus in?”
How about you? Enough of my story. Do you remember the time you first said yes to Jesus? Do you have an Ebenezer of you own that takes you back to the moment? If so, maybe it’s time you got it out and put it somewhere that it can be seen on a regular basis. What do you think that would do for you? How could seeing it more often inspire you?
I see my ring daily, and that’s a good thing. I see the ’81 Monte Carlo almost daily. (I confess that I not only have one on my desk but also have one at home on a shelf by where my guitars and Eagles and Beach Boys album covers hang. You know, the important stuff.)
Maybe it's time for us all to "stack a few stones" in plain view and remember those holy moments.
And just in case you’ve never said “yes” to Jesus before, do yourself a favor. Take your ’81 Monte Carlo for a drive this evening, roll down the windows, and say “yes” to Jesus.*
*Monte Carlo, evening, and windows rolled down are all optional and not required. A simple “yes” will do.
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