The other day I was out weeding the garden, and as I looked down at my dirt covered hand, I saw a glimmer of something shiny that caught all of my attention. It was the single 1/4 carat diamond in my engagement ring. The light it gave off made me think of the day I got it. Then I thought of how I played with it for the eight months before our wedding thinking how much I couldn’t wait to get married. I look at it every day, and it just keeps shining. A diamond is a girl’s best friend has a little different meaning here, I think.
The heat was bad, but the humidity was much worse. I was getting lightheaded, so I decided to sit with my four-year-old in the shade and drink a little water. I took my phone out of my pocket very carefully so I didn’t get it all muddy and I took a picture of this shining diamond on my filthy, wrinkled hand. My initial thought was about the picture of our hands the photographer took on our wedding day and how new and beautiful the rings were. But today, the rings held a different story.
I thought about the beginning of the story, but now I began to think of the middle where all the action is. Everything that these rings on this hand have seen so to speak isn’t recorded anywhere but in memories. These rings are my memories as there wasn’t a day that has passed in the last twenty years that they haven’t been present. It is an incredible thought, and I often wonder if the rings that the priest blesses on your wedding day aren’t the things that constantly remind us about “until death do us part.” I think it was done on purpose. As God blesses the marriage so does he bless the rings that remind us every day of our commitment. “…to have and to hold from this day forward; for better or for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish from this day forward until death do us part.”
When I look at this diamond, in better and in worse, in richer and in poorer, in sickness and in health, I still and always will see my best friend until death does us part.