About 15 years ago, my father-in-law organized a salmon fishing trip on Lake Michigan for the entire family, a total of 13 of us. We arrived a day early to take in the sights. We went to the lake, and the kids played in the sand. Most everything was sand, including an adjacent playground that has a part in this testimony.
About mid-afternoon all the kids were playing on the playground, and I was pushing my niece on the swings. I was recently married and was playing with my wedding ring, as I wasn't used to it yet. I kept moving it from the ring finger to the pinky finger as it was more comfortable to there. Well, as it turns out, it wasn't the smartest thing to do while pushing a child on a swing on a playground made of sand. Yes, you guessed it, something felt different on my hand when I gave yet another push, and I realized my ring was gone! I am not one to panic easily, and it was only afternoon, and I had plenty of time to find it, so I thought.
News traveled fast on the playground full of people that I lost my ring. Soon I had people I didn't know, as well as my family, scouring through the sand all around the swing trying to help me find my ring. An hour passed and then another and so forth. I did as any guy would and tried to think of what tool could help me out of this mess. I called everywhere I could think of to find a metal detector and came up with nothing. As the afternoon started to give way to evening, all the people that were helping were long gone and it was all just family. Another hour or so passed, and now it was getting dark. My in-laws, Dale and Ardith, and brother in law, Andrew, and sister, Michelle, were all tired. It had been a long day already. Nobody wanted to be here looking for this ring as we had to be on the fishing boat before daybreak the next day. I told them they should go back to the hotel and that Andrea (wife), myself and my daughter, Briana, would stay looking.
I didn't want to give up as my wife was in tears by this point. You can't blame her as "stupid-I" lost the wedding ring she had just bought me. I was also worried that if I skipped the fishing and tried to wait until the next morning, that some beachcomber would come along at some crazy early hour with a metal detector and find my ring. It was also known to a few people I didn't know, that I lost a gold ring on the playground. Now that almost everyone was gone I came up with a plan. We rummaged through the kids' beach toys and got a bucket, and more importantly a strainer that kids use to let sand sift through. I drew squares in the sand (a bunch of them) under, in front of, and even behind the swing set as I had no clue in what direction the ring flew off my finger. I then started with one square and sifted the entire thing onto another square. I then did that square and all the sand I already sifted and all the sand that was underneath that and moved it back to the empty square. I then had my start point.
After that, we did a square, then another, and another, and so forth piling it all on the same pile. The sand was deep, and I had to go that deep because of everyone that was rooting through the sand that afternoon looking for the ring. Anyone that knew me knows I was a bit of a perfectionist back then. I was being extremely careful, making sure that every bit of sand went through that toy strainer. It was getting late by now, and I was getting further and further away from the swingset using my "grid" method. We had a massive pile of sand by now that was all sifted with extreme care. This was my wedding ring, and I wasn't taking any chance of doing it halfway right. I know everyone has heard the needle in the haystack saying. Well, we were experiencing it first-hand. I was determined but losing hope at the same time.
We had been looking for a really long time by now. Andrea was getting really tired, and she doesn't "do" being tired real well (sorry honey). We did leave really early that day to travel up there, coupled with the stress of losing the ring and sand mining for hour after hour was about all the poor girl could handle for one day. She was really sad over the loss, and it tore me up to see her so hurt over my stupidity. Briana kept asking to leave to go to the hotel. It was around 11 pm, and I was getting really desperate. The two of them were physically and emotionally spent by now and just sat and watched my futile attempt to find the ring. I was so far away from the swing set now using the "grid" system, which it didn't make sense anymore to keep trying. Now I started to break down as I got so sad, feeling like I failed my wife. I did, without a doubt, everything "humanly" possible to find that ring with what I had. I had a pile of sand that looked like an extra-large termite mound, and I knew there was no way the ring made it through the sifter. There was nothing else I could do. I was done. I had failed. My wife and daughter were both done for a while, and now I was too. I finally came to realize I was not going to find this wedding ring myself. I am ashamed to say that it took from afternoon to almost midnight to get myself to a point to realize that I didn't get myself out of the way and just let the Lord handle it. I can't put into words the feeling that was about to overcome me as I finally realized total failure and admitted to myself I was not going to find this ring without the Lord's help.
All of a sudden, I felt a strong urge to pray, something I admit I failed to properly do up to this point. I instantly had a new found energy and gathered up my wife and daughter and went over to the side of the playground, and we got on our knees. I felt led to have my daughter Briana pray as I felt it would boost her faith. She said a short little sweet prayer that we will find our lost ring. As soon as she was done, I jumped up, went over to the huge mound of sand and thrust my hand into it, grabbed a handful of sand and said "LET'S GO!" Without even a microscopic bit of doubt, I immediately started to walk away towards the car, and as the sand sifted out through my fingers I HAD THAT RING IN MY HAND!
Chris and Andrea Sanger
Charlestown, IN