The Promise We Made with This Ring

By Rebekah Thielen

Hey, Mom?

Yeah?

Why do you wear those two rings?

She is seven years old, and the first thing I’m asking myself is why I’m so late in having this conversation. Surely we have talked about this before. Haven’t we talked about this before? Isn’t this the conversation we should be having everyday?

I look down at my left hand. I see the two rings that were never welded together. It’s just one of those things that never happened once married life began. It doesn’t really bother me, though. Just having them, just wearing them, is enough, for the one who wears a ring has found a blessing from the Lord.

“Well, this is the ring your Dad gave me on the day he asked me to marry him. And this ring, this is the one he gave to me the day we were married. This is the one I wear closest to my heart, because it reminds me how we promised to love each other, and only each other, til death do us part.”

It all sounded so nice until those last five words. Such beautiful words of devotion, the greatest promise spoken between two souls. Why must it all end with death?

Who do you think will die first? You or Dad? 

She asks an interesting question. I don’t mind the question. I like the questions.

But now she’s got me feeling a little uncomfortable.

“I don’t know, honey. I don’t really like to think about it. Hopefully, we’ll both live to be really old. Hopefully, we’ll all live to be really, really old. Just like Grandpa did.”

I kiss her cheek. Time to say goodnight.

But now she’s got me thinking about it. Now I can’t get the thought out of my head.

Maybe death is but the only way of life until we join the Lord again in Paradise. Maybe death is not the end of love. Maybe death is where the love begins.

The sin of the first man and wife was covered by death on their way out of Paradise. The sin of Christ's Bride was covered by the death of the Creator of every living thing. In the marriage relationship, we too sacrifice ourselves for our beloved. This is how we now live. We die first because He first died for us.

So now the man and woman live to out-die one another.

***

Rebekah is the wife of Joshua, her husband of eleven years. With the help of the Lord they have brought forth six children. Five grow and play and learn here on this earth while one (lost due to miscarriage) lives and sings in the glory of heaven. They reside in southern Illinois where Joshua serves as pastor to the Lord's flock. Each day ushers and compels them deeper and deeper into the promise of new mercies, the hope of the resurrection, the coming King of Kings, and the blessed life of the world to come.