Tag Archives: rubies

This gift — even lovelier the second time around

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As I waited at the gate in Lambert Airport to fly from St. Louis to Minneapolis, I used my time wisely by cleaning out the litter on the floor of my black leather purse.

Ladies, you know the stuff that settles to the bottom of our bags – empty M & M wrappers, snippets of tissue, sales receipts, old concert tickets, broken toothpicks. I had quite a pile of junk including a package of Orbit gum that had one lone stick left in it. I took the stick of gum out of the pack and placed it in a mini side pocket on my purse. Then I added the empty gum pack to the garbage pile.

Shortly after we boarded and I had finished a cup of Starbucks, I went searching for that stick of gum in the side pocket. Suddenly — with my seat partner as my witness — I literally went into Orbit.

My seat partner was Lola Maddox, a retired judge from Illinois, who seemed almost as elated as I was over what had just happened.

Before I go on, let me back up!

When I started writing this blog, I told the story of how many years ago my sister, Lori, our late mom, and I decided to call ourselves “The Ruby Girls,” because we all had July birthdays. We three loved our birth stone and our families enjoyed gifting us with ruby things — rings, earrings, pendants, bracelets.

About 15 years ago, my husband, Jim, gave me a beautiful ruby cross. I loved it upon first sight and wore is almost constantly – until the day it disappeared. I was heart sick when it went missing and couldn’t for the life of me figure out what I had done with it.

It seemed it was there one minute and gone the next.

Often, I checked and rechecked my jewelry boxes and the drawers in my armoire. It took a long time to convince myself that it was gone forever.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve said to someone, “when you stop looking for something it will show up.”

Well, that’s exactly what happened on Delta Flight 3347 when I went looking for that chewing gum.

Tucked in the mini side pocket, along with that stick of gum, was a plastic baggy. I pulled it out and through the transparency I saw my ruby cross and a pair of ruby earrings Jim also had given me. Right then and there I shared my glee with Lola. This was, after all, something someone could not help but share.

I’m sure this cross and these earrings have been gone for at least four or five years. I remember purchasing the purse at Marshall’s in Jackson, Tenn., and actually not using it for a long time because I wasn’t sure I liked it. But how I managed to slip a little plastic bag holding this beautiful jewelry in a side pocket of a purse I will never know.

All I do know is that I’ve received this gift a second time during my birthday month – July. And I had a lovely seat mate in Lola to share it with.

I told my very happy story to my family at the dinner table. They remembered that I had lost the ruby cross and were elated that it had resurfaced.

As my tale unfolded, our 7-year-old grandson, Ethan, listened intently. Then he asked a very serious question.

He wanted to know, “But, where’s the gum?”

Is that not precious – almost as precious as a ruby?

Until Soon

Let me take you there

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Beth Moore has a huge following. Last Saturday, 300,000 pairs of eyes and ears watched her every move and hung on her every word.

Beth, a prolific Bible-study author and leader of Living Proof Ministries based in Houston, was live from a church in Atlanta via satellite. I was among 200 women who gathered at Bethel Lutheran Brethren Church, Grand Forks, for Beth’s “So Long, Insecurity,” simulcast. The other 299,800 were in 869 sites across the United States.
 

Wow! It was a record and even Beth was blown away by the numbers. “God is up to something huge,” she said, “when 300,000 women are meeting together in His name. Do you know the fame we could bring to His name if we can be secure in our faith life?”
 

I highly recommend Beth’s latest book also titled, “So Long, Insecurity.” She names things that cause insecurity in women: pride, instability in the home, a significant loss, rejection, dramatic change, personal limitations, personal dispositions, surrounding culture.

Both morning and afternoon sessions began and ended with music by Travis Cottrell and his terrific worship band. It was a surround sound thrill to sing with 200 other voices in Bethel’s sanctuary. Such songs as, “Victory in Jesus,” “Give Thanks,” “I Will Sing of My Redeemer,” “Your Name.”
 

You know how I feel about rubies. Well, Job 28:18b says, the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.” Beth presented many morsels of wisdom, backing them up with Scripture. Here are some:

“God knew exactly what he was doing when he created you female. He wants you to be graced by it; we will never move an inch toward security unless we are convinced we are deeply loved by the God of the universe; insecurity is not a weakness, it is unbelief; forgiveness is God’s gift to us; how much do we take God up on his grace? it does not honor God to disbelieve his grace; grace takes up space in a secure woman; we are to grace people in the same way God graces us; grace is the only thing we can give away but also keep so we get to have our cake and eat it, too.”

A few more: “There is no more powerful tool of the devil than guilt; victory or defeat resides in the mind; if we want to walk as secure women we have to forgive; we cannot out-sin God’s forgiveness; when we know we are loved, we love; when we are given second chances we give a second chance; we are never more like our Father above than when we love where we don’t need something back.”

I thank the Rev. Jeff Stephan and the women of Bethel (plus a few men helpers) for being such gracious hosts for the simulcast. There was a 90-minute noon break and we enjoyed croissants, fruit, veggies, cookies, bars, coffee, lemonade.
 

Bethel’s Sandy Horner can vouch for the fact that it takes a lot of people working together to make something like this happen. “I would do it all over again in a heartbeat,” Sandy said. “Seeing smiles on the faces makes it all worthwhile.”