What follows is a story of loss; a story of a precious metal, and
precious stone, lost. What follows is not a story of love lost. What
follows is a story of an opportunity for love to grow, in spite of an
unfortunate and frustrating circumstance.
On the third of June, two-thousand eleven, I proposed to the lovely
Jennifer Ann. It was one of the best days of my life, and certainly
the best birthday I have ever had. On that day, I gave her a ring.
The ring symbolized a seal over her heart; I made a promise to love
her with a jealousy unyielding as the grave.
Song of Solomon 8:6
6 Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
The ring and its radiance symbolized all that we are, and all of the
love that we share. It symbolized my promise to be hers and hers
alone. It symbolized the seal over my heart. I will love no one the
way I love her, for all of my remaining days.
Jennifer's job is demanding. It is difficult, physical work. I am a
desk jockey. At most, I need to be concerned about carpal tunnel, and
maintaining an ergonomically correct position so as to keep from
getting poor posture. Jennifer has to avoid numerous dangers as well as
wrangle/handle/control livestock on a daily basis. She must be
concerned about 1,300 pounds of equine mass running her over, jumping
on her, kicking her, or giving her a black eye...I admire her work
ethic, and her ability to remain calm around large animals. I know
for certain that I am the wuss in this relationship...
Anyway, Jennifer's job is demanding. She must often put on rubber
gloves, and frequently must wash her hands to rid them of all the fun
stuff she encounters. As such, her ring must often be removed
throughout the day. Sure, she could wear the ring on a necklace while
at work - but what fun is that? It needs to be on display, for the
whole world to see!
For the first six months of our engagement, Jennifer wore her ring to
work every day. Aside from a couple of scares when she forgot that
she had put the ring in her pocket, it seemed that it would be okay to
wear at work without the risk of losing it. For the first six
months...
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:22 PM I received a text from
Jennifer. It was not good news...The conversation played out as
follows:
As you can see, she took it pretty hard. How was I to react? Yeah,
the ring was expensive. Yes, it would be a hassle to replace. There
were so many things I could have gotten frustrated about. I will
admit that at first I was a little frustrated by the news, but I took
a minute to think about it from her perspective. I imagined that her
mind was going a mile a minute. I knew she was upset, so what good
would it have done to come down on her and make her feel worse?
Nothing in this world is worth more to me than her trust in me, and I
was not about to berate her and make her feel as if she could not come
to me with problems and trust me to react with compassion. I did my
best to comfort her, but she remained fairly distraught.
Thank God for insurance! Not to out shine Aaron Rodgers and his
discount double check commercial, but let me tell you...State Farm was
absolutely amazing! Big shout out to Susie Ricke and her staff for
helping us out and giving us such great service! State Farm certainly
has us for life...
Within a matter of days, we were able to replace the symbol. The
wonderful people at Shane Co. were kind enough to bring in diamonds from
their other locations for us to examine. Granted we had no idea what
we were looking at through that jeweler's loop, but they made us feel
pretty good about everything. Sure, the commercials are annoying, but
I really do feel like we have a friend in the diamond business...
I meant every word of what I said. The ring was nothing compared to
what it symbolized; sure, the ring was lost, but our love was not. My
heart is still sealed off from others, and I will still love no one
the way I love her. No one will ever know me the way she knows me,
and I do not need a ring on her finger to know that. She will always
be captivating. I will always be drawn to her, and love her with a
jealous fervor.
Song of Solomon 4:9-11
9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.
10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much more pleasing is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your perfume
more than any spice!
11 Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride;
milk and honey are under your tongue.
Jennifer: No matter what happens to the material items in our lives,
nothing in this world means more to me than you, your love, and your
trust in me. I will never do anything to compromise our love. I want
you to know that you have stolen my heart; I want you to know that my
heart is sealed off from all others. Our love will shine on, like
that crazy diamond.
For Always...Bryan
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