During the Iraq war, a woman soldier lost her hand when it was blown off by an explosive device that landed near her. As she was being rushed to the hospital, she kept crying out, not for the hand she had lost but for the ring that was on that hand—her wedding ring. One of her fighting mates returned to the place, found the hand, and brought back the ring.
What an amazing transposition of values. The ring was the band that symbolized her love and union with her husband. In a dramatic realization of what really mattered, she could live without the hand but wept for the loss of the symbol of the spiritual bond of love.
In some of life’s most defining moments, we find depths of value that shallow moments never reveal. Squandering our existence in the shallow end of life, we miss all that is found in the deep end of discovery and beauty.
Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Secular Gods, pg.173
2 comments:
It is also possible she was in extremer emotional turmoil, and the only way to deal with the lost of the hand was to not think about - she was in denial.
I feel pretty sure 12 month later it would be the loss of the hand that upset her, not the loss of the ring if it had not been returned.
"Squandering our existence in the shallow end of life, we miss all that is found in the deep end of discovery and beauty."
I would suggest that a material possession such as the ring is itself in "the shallow end of life". Sure it is in this case a symbol, but a symbol is quite different to what it symbolises.
What is important is the love and union with her husband. Would that be lessened in anyway by the loss of the symbol? Well, possible yes, but only because people prize their material possessions so greatly; only because we are "Squandering our existence in the shallow end of life".
Anonymous,
I suppose then that you have no material possessions?
Post a Comment