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“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
I will build you up again,
and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt.
Again you will take up your timbrels
and go out to dance with the joyful.”
Jeremiah 31:3b-4 NIV

Can I ask you a dumb question? When did you take your wedding rings off?

Ah, the $64,000 question.

I thought back to my own decision so I knew what to tell this dear friend who had just lost his wife.

Right after Keith died, I had no thought to taking off my rings, was not sure I would ever take them off. They were my link to him, a visible reminder that he had been here…and married to me.

Soon after, though, I began to have other thoughts…remarrying some day, having to explain time after time that I was not still married when asked questions about my husband.

I discussed this with a dear friend who told me the decision was mine alone, but perhaps I should move my rings to the other hand as an intermediate step. If that worked, I could easily remove them for good. If not, I could just as easily slip them back on to the other hand.

I thought that seemed like a good decision so I tried it. They felt a little strange on the other hand, but I left them there.

For about two weeks.

During that time, another thought struck me. I did not want to live just as Keith’s widow.

One day, I knew I wanted to emerge as more than Keith’s widow…to again become Liz…just Liz. I wasn’t there yet, but I knew that I wanted to be.

For me, that made the decision of my rings easy.

About three months after Keith died, I took them off for good. I was almost afraid not to, for fear I might be stuck in that world of the Widow Wright instead of the world of Liz.

For me, it was the right decision.

For a long time, I wore no rings. Those themselves were often a painful reminder of what I had taken off…and lost. I stored them all in my jewelry box, along with my rings from Keith, for another day.

Today, I wear a couple of new rings. They both contain Bible verses: the Lord’s Prayer and Jeremiah 29:11.

They speak, to me, of a different kind of pledge, a symbol of the “new” Liz.

They speak of my devotion to my Heavenly Bridegroom.

I was a believer before Keith died. I have grown in leaps and bounds in my faith since then…out of necessity.

The most important thing is that the commitment God has made to me is even stronger than the one that Keith made to me. He has promised to always, always, always be there…through thick and thin, in sickness and in health. Sound familiar?

But there is one change in His commitment from the one that Keith made to me…He will be there not until death do us part, but especially after that…into eternity. Praise Him for that!

I may no longer be “taken” in the sense that I was when Keith was here, but I am still “taken” by a Savior Who gave His life for me.

Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Dear Father, thank You for Your incredible, unending, unwavering love. Thank You for the man I had in my life and the wonderful love that we shared. Thank You for caring for me since then, and promising to care for me every day for forever. That gives me the strength to get through whatever is to come, knowing that You are there with me. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.