A Tale of Two Rings & the First Commandment: He Wants Our Hearts

New ring with religious design

I have a silver band ring with a crown of thorns design.

The evening I debuted the crown of thorns ring and had it blessed by a priest, I lost a different ring—my blue topaz fashion ring.

I wear rings on my right hand. For the Saturday vigil Mass, I wore the crown of thorns ring on my ring finger.

I often wore my blue topaz fashion ring on the ring finger, but instead I wore it on my pinky finger in order to wear my new crown of thorns ring on my ring finger.

I lost the blue topaz ring in the church. It was too loose to wear on my pinky finger and it slipped off.

What did this mean?

I did not know if I would see my blue topaz fashion ring ever again! It seemed unignorably significant that I lost it in church and right after getting my new crown of thorns ring blessed!

Was the Lord stripping me of all worldly things—symbolized by the blue topaz fashion ring—in order to leave me with only Himself—symbolized by the crown of thorns ring?

Thankfully, the blue topaz fashion ring was found the next morning on Sunday. It had been stepped on and was misshapen, but thankfully I had a warranty.

I was glad to recover my blue topaz fashion ring!

But if I had not recovered it, I hope I would have handled it with grace.

The First Commandment

Our Lord wants us to be willing to give up everything for Him, even if we are not actually asked to give up everything for Him. Christ gave up everything for us on the Cross.

The blue topaz fashion ring being trodden on—inside the church of all places—reminds me that the things esteemed by the world, like glitz and glam, are not what matters to God. And may even offend Him.

"Man cannot abide in his pomp..." Psalm 49:12 RSVCE

What a "sparkly" reminder this was of the love we owe our God! 

Another reflection on the futility of the material: The Mediocrity of Millionaires