Could prayer help find a lost wedding ring diamond?

My wife and I were camping in the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Utah last October when, early one morning, my wife exclaimed in alarm, “My diamond is gone!”

My heart sunk. It was the diamond I gave her in a wedding ring over 30-years ago. It was special for many reasons.

To think about where it could be in the acres of sand dunes we had been hiking during the night and day was mind-numbing.

However, I did what I always do when faced with distress. I prayed and reminded myself that what looked impossible to the human mind is possible to the divine mind.

The divine mind is the mind of God, I knew, an all-knowing, all-wise mind that comprehends and understands all that is real and true. This mind has informed great thinkers over the ages, guided discoverers, directed leaders, inspired artists, and yes, even helped simple people like me gain useful information in times of need.

The one mind knew exactly where this diamond was, I was confident.

To hear direction coming from God on how to find this stone, I resolved to stay calm, humble, expectant, and obedient to direction as it came.

We looked in all the obvious places and found nothing. With a full day of hiking planned, we decided to proceed and trust the mind of God to tell us what we needed to know when we needed to know it.

While trekking through a long slot canyon and having lots of time to think and pray, there were moments of temptation when I started to doubt ever seeing that diamond again.

“You need to accept the loss and move on,” a loud voice argued within.

From an outward point of view, finding that diamond appeared hopeless, and I knew there were times in life when the greater gain was learning a valuable spiritual lesson from a loss, and a willingness to move on to something better. I was willing to be open minded, but for the moment it felt like the greater gain, in this instance, was to deepen my trust in divine mind’s ability to tell us the location of that gem.

I continued to pray and listen, expecting to hear further direction on where this diamond had landed. But for many hours, no direction came.

Later in the day, I was moving hiking gear from our truck into our camper, still expectant of finding that diamond.

As I stepped to the front door of our trailer to exit, I looked down at a dark blue rug on the floor. In the weaves of the rug, I spotted a little brown pebble. We see gravel and grit in this rug all the time, and frequently pick it up to shake it out the door.

But a little voice within said, “Pick up that pebble.”

I picked it up, turned it over, and it glittered on the bottom side. It was Kathy’s diamond.

What a happy moment! We danced for joy!

The one mind knew where that diamond was, and with some prayerful listening for direction from above, we saw where it was too. We were grateful beyond words!

This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 12:00 AM.