The Intercession of Strangers

Sometimes I feel far from God. Not that he’s walked away, but that I, in the business and non-stop pace of my life, have walked away from Him.

Its been especially bad lately. There is so much darkness in the world. I feel like now, more than ever, with the Internet, spewing out hatred and darkness, rape and murder, that we are more aware of evil than we were ten, twenty years ago. Our minds are filled with questions: “How could someone do such a thing? What kind of person does it take to… [fill in the blank]. What if I was the victim? What makes that person do such a thing? What makes him/her different from me?”

Some days, I wake up with a cloud of darkness hanging around my head. I go about my daily life, and the hatred and sins of the world haunt me, make me afraid of people, afraid of myself.

And even closer to me and my own life, so many friends of mine, who were strong believers, now have their own doubts, or have turned away from God entirely. It’s almost become a fad to hate God, and I feel so alone.

God, where are You?

Yet, I still don’t take the time on most days to seek Him out, to just take ten minutes and focus on Him. Instead, I open yet another news story, or scroll through more mindless social media, which once brought us all together, but is now, forcing us to see the evil in our fellow man more clearly than before.

Mistrust runs my day, and fear enters my nights.

I woke up this morning with this overhanging dread again, and a migraine to accompany it. “God, why don’t you speak to me?” I said in a prayer. He has spoken to me so many other times when my heart wept the most. I have audibly heard His voice, and I know the sound of it like a baby knows the sound of his mother’s voice, even when he first emerges from the womb.

I miss you, God.

When I finally chased away my blues and the headache and came to work, one of my coworkers came to me and told me an interesting story. She had met a woman last night, later in the evening, after everyone in our department had left for the day. The woman’s name was Cindy, and she asked my coworker what department she was in, because she was a newer employee, and often on her breaks during her late shift, she would wander through our department, praying.

Then she said that she felt drawn to one office in particular. She led my coworker back to a door and placed her hands on it, saying that she most often feels God leading her to pray for the person who works behind the door.

It was my door. She’s been praying for me.

I know that God wanted me to know that. He wants me to know that even strangers who I’ve never met before pray over me—that my problems aren’t so big, or my worries so outlandish that God no longer cares.

I was reminded of verses in the Bible that talk about how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, when we cannot or will not pray for ourselves. If the Holy Spirit prays for us, then maybe he calls others up to pray with Him. Thank you, God, for never forsaking me.

Thrift Store Score

There are few things more thrilling in life than finding a good deal. Over the years I’ve been a thrift and consignment store shopper, on the look-out for deals. I’ve found a few good things. A few years ago, I found a cute bracelet that I really liked. It was only $5,  so I bought it. Weeks later, the markings inside the bracelet revealed that it was sterling silver. It also included a jeweler’s marking. I looked that up, and found out that normally those bracelets go for about $120. I got it for $5. Win.

Since then, I’ve learned to keep a good eye out for good jewelry. I’ve been making jewelry and ravenously buying jewelry all of my life. My dad used to take me with him when he shopped for my mom, because I could spot a flawed gemstone immediately. One Christmas I actually stopped him from buying an emerald set, because one of the emeralds was cracked. The jeweler was less than thrilled.

Over the weekend, I was visiting family and friends in Maryland. As I usually do, I went to a consignment shop. While there, I took a glance at the jewelry counter and tried on various cheap, pearl rings with chipped paint. They were costume jewelry, so I decided against them. But then I saw a beautiful ring in the corner of the cabinet. It looked to be silver, with a diamond and two sapphires embedded in it. It was only $26, and fit me perfectly, so I decided to purchase it.

This morning I discovered some strange markings inside of it, and a small sapphire, which I hadn’t noticed before, embedded in the band.

How odd. Who puts a gem INSIDE the ring?

My ring, ya'll

Anyway, it took me awhile, but I tracked it down, and found out that it was a Zales engagement ring (clearly, that relationship didn’t go very well), and sells for $119.

SCORE. Let me remind you that I got it for $26.

I am by no means an expert at this, but I have a few hints on how to find a treasure among plastic fakes:

Look inside the jewelry for markings. Most commonly, you will find the 925 marking stamped inside the piece. That means it’s sterling silver, and, you can’t go wrong with silver. It’s a good metal that’ll last. It just tarnishes, so you have to clean it from time to time.

Also, look for markings like 10k, or 14k, basically any marking that includes a “k.” That tells you that the metal is gold, and the number tells you how many karats. Look for any other markings, and do a quick Google search if you can. Often if a piece is good, it’ll have a jeweler’s stamp inside of it.

Look for small, dull stones. Seriously, real jewelry often isn’t terribly flashy. The flashy, sparkly stuff is usually fake, used for bigger, cocktail-type pieces. Real gemstones (unless you’re talking about big, LARGE diamonds) are often darker in color (like real sapphires and rubies), and small, because good gems are expensive—so the smaller the piece, the more affordable it is. When I find a ring or earrings with small, dark stones, I know it’s usually a real sapphire (or ruby, or whatever).

Dead giveaways that something is fake:

•         Any sort of chipping or peeling of the metal.
•          Cloudy stones. Old fake diamonds, especially, used to cloud if you introduced them to water too often. Real stones might often be dark, but they’re seldom cloudy.
•         The metal reveals a copper-colored underside. That means whatever it was coated with (even if it was coated with silver) has rubbed off. That orange stuff on the underside is often what turns people’s fingers green.