A Beloved Ring
Early in my spiritual journey, I often found myself not really enjoying Christian music. I know… strange, right?!?! I thought so too, but I really couldn’t get into it. You see, I didn’t grow up listening to Christian music, and the only type of Christian music I was familiar with, was a style that was either way too high tempo & overly stimulating, or just slow, dry, and terrible .. the kind of melody you sing out of a book. Dry and lacking life – funeral style.
I recall expressing my lack of enjoyment of Christian music, to a friend. A few days later, she called me and told me she had a song she thought I would like. She thought that it could possibly kick-start my enjoyment of other Christian songs. I remember her calling with so much excitement, saying “Stephanie, I have a song for you. I promise you’ll like it. It’s a song by Hillsong, called Oceans. Promise me you’ll listen to it! It’s really pretty!” I promised my dear friend Meridette that I would listen and then got off the phone. A few minutes later, I was in love. It instantly became a song I wanted to keep listening to constantly, like obsessively on repeat for about 2 days. It became “our song”. I remember singing my heart out telling God “Ok God this is Our Song!” I sung this song every morning while getting ready to start my day. It was like my way of serenading my loving heavenly father. I know, a total cheeseball. Eventually, I learned to love other Christian songs… a lot, but this song always remained “Our Song”.
A few years later, I took a trip to Israel. I insisted on being baptized in the Jordan River, and so I did. After my baptism, I decided to buy a spiritual ring as a way to symbolize my commitment to a relationship with God. I fell in love with the spinner rings. The outer layer was gold, but the center that spun around was silver and each one had a different spiritual message. The decision I had to make was what the message would say. One ring said “God bless me and protect me” The other ring said “I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine”. Now I loved the wording of “God bless me and protect me” I understood it, I liked hearing it, and I could picture myself seeing the Hebrew letters every day and feel protected. The problem was that the rings didn’t look properly finished. It wasn’t well crafted. It was almost as if someone who was just learning to make jewelry made this ring. It was certainly not as pretty as the other ring; however, I just didn’t quite understand the message “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine”, and I didn’t see myself looking at it, and it meaning much to me, but the ring was a well-crafted ring. I asked my friends for their opinion. They not only loved the look of the ring, but they somehow loved the “Beloved” message also. It felt like this ring was speaking another language that everyone understood but me. It was like reading a sentence understanding all the words but the meaning just not resonating. I couldn’t understand how the essence had anything to do with God. I bought the ring anyway, hoping the message would eventually grow on me. It did.
About a year later, I recall driving in my car and of course “Our Song” comes on.. Yes, the song Oceans by Hillsong. I remember singing this love song to God. Then I remember my inner being say “Spin Your Ring” ….Why? I thought. What’s the point of that? That’s just silly… why spin the ring, I grumbled to myself… “Spin Your Ring” my inner being kept repeating. “Ok, fine” I said to myself, while feeling slightly irritated. I’ll do it… it just makes no sense!! but ok spinning, while rolling my eyes, and feeling ridiculous. As I spun my ring I heard the lyrics in Oceans, repeating over and over …”For I am yours, and you are mine”… and just like a beautiful flower budding open to reveal a gift, so was the meaning of the ring revealed in my thoughts. I finally understood exactly what the ring I wore was saying “I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine”… was exactly saying “I am yours and you are mine” like in our Song! The whole time I was wearing a ring, that was a physical manifestation of our song!!! Mic Drop-brain exploded. How didn’t I see it before! I think the word beloved thew me off, but I believe God wanted me to understand the ring, at a later date. It made it so much more special that way. He heard me singing, he listened when I serenaded him… and he knew this song was “our song.” He gave me this ring that took the word in our song a step further. Years later, I would also get more messages from him telling me that I truly was his beloved, and it has filled me with so much confident assurance that I am his, and he is mine.
Exercise: Listen to a few spiritual songs. Really listen to the lyrics and find a song that resonates with you the most. The song should be one that you really enjoy, that deeply expresses the way you feel about your personal relationship you have with God. Once you found the perfect song. Dedicate that song to him. Let him know that song is “our song”. This song will eventually show up in miraculous ways. It will connect you with God every time you hear it, & it will ultimately become a miracle moment, a song that shows up right when you need to hear from God the most.
