Desire for diamonds

A friend of mine just sent me an email I've received several times before and our Sovereign God prompted her to send it to me today...a day after we talked about "Digging for Diamonds". I believe this happened so we can share this on the blog (comments in green, emphasis and illustrations mine) - please note that the original author is unknown (to me).

A married lady was expecting a birthday gift from her husband. For many months she had admired a beautiful diamond ring in a showroom, and knowing her husband could afford it, she told him that was all she wanted. As her birthday approaches, this lady awaited signs that her husband had purchased the diamond ring...

Finally, on the morning of her birthday, her husband called her into his study room. Her husband told her how proud he was to have such a good wife, and told her how much he loves her. He handed her a beautifully- wrapped gift box. Curious, the wife opened the box and found a LOVELY, LEATHER-BOUND BIBLE, with the wife's name embossed in gold.

Angrily, she raised her voice to her husband and said, 'With all your money you gave me a Bible as my birthday present? And stormed out of the house, leaving her husband for good. (There is no reason for walking out of your marriage - please if you're thinking about it, send us an email let's talk. God's plan is for marriages to exemplify Jesus' relationship with the church - link up with Him for coping strategies.)

Many years passed and the married lady was very successful in business. She managed to settle for a more beautiful house and a wonderful family, but realized her ex-husband was very old, and thought perhaps she should go to visit him. She had not seen him for many years. But before she could make arrangements, she received a telegram telling her that her ex-husband had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to her. She needed to come back immediately and take care of things. When she arrived at her ex-husband's house, sudden sadness and regret filled her heart. She began to search through her ex-husband’s important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as she had left it years ago.

With tears, she opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. As she browse through, a tiny package dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a diamond ring with her name engraved on it, the same diamond ring which she saw at the showroom. On the tag was her birth date as at the year she had left him with the words...'LUV U ALWAYS' on it...

How many times do we miss God's blessings because they are not packaged as we expected? We should learn to appreciate and be grateful for what we receive (& even for what we don't).

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you do not have; but remember that what you now have may have been among the things you once hoped for. We teach our children that they cannot have everything they want - why should it be any different for us adults?

God bless us all.