A Small Miracle

My Aunt Claire posted a story about my uncle miraculously finding the diamond from her wedding ring in her blog yesterday. That story reminded me of a miraculous ring story of my very own! In April 2000, we were stationed in Colorado, and we rented a cabin for the weekend near Fairplay with our friends the L's and the B's (yes, the same couples we went camping with just a few weeks ago!). It was a pretty nice cabin, big enough to hold all of us, but it did have some odd quirks (one being bedbugs, but we didn't find that out until later!). The kitchen was kind of in the middle of the house, with a breakfast bar between it and the family room. Right by the bar on the floor on the family room side was a big grate for the furnace air intake. It just went straight down a big shaft, right there by the counter! I was standing by it, taking off my rings to go into the hot tub (why, I have no idea). I have my engagement diamond and wedding ring, and then I also have a small anniversary band that I wear on the other hand that Bob got me when I was working in a lab and needed something flat to wear under my gloves. Well, the anniversary ring slipped, fell on the grate and as I reached down to get it, fell down the shaft. Ack! I panicked, got all shaky, etc. We took off the grate and looked down. We could see the ring! At the bottom of the shaft, there was a seam dividing the bottom of the shaft from the duct actually going into the furnace. There in the seam, balancing on its side, was my ring! Well, it was great to see it, but I could not figure out any way to actually get it. But fortunately there were 3 well-qualified Air Force officers there, ready to come up with a ring rescue scenario! They rooted through the house, and Bob found a fishing tackle box. He put a hook on a line, lowered the hook down the shaft, and then proceeded to snag the ring on his first try!! This makes it sound really easy, but it was truly a miracle, I think. Bob is not by any means a practiced fisherman, and if he had hit the ring at all and knocked it out of the groove, it would have either rolled down into the furnace or just been laid flat so there would have been no way to get it. I know the Lord was guiding his hook! I was so shaky afterwards. It was really amazing, and I'm still so thankful that God chose to answer my desparate prayers for help!