One Stolen Necklace = 2 | Trusting God’s Word When Life Looks the Opposite

My stomach sank…

As I was finishing up my shower at the gym I realized I forgot to get from the locker my mama necklace my little 1 year old boy got me for our first Mother’s Day together. "I’ve only been away from the locker for 5 minutes, surely no one would steal it!"…so I thought. I rushed out, went to the locker and it was GONE! I raced to the front desk hoping someone turned it in and no one did…reality hit...someone did actually steal my mama necklace.

I was in tears on the drive home, "God I have lost so much and I lose this!?!? Something so meaningful!?!? Do you really care about restoring my life, after all I've been through and still am going through, why would you let yet someone else come in to steal something so precious from me?’" I sank into my whirlwind of grief and was reminded once again just how mean people can be… ‘For goodness sake God, who is cruel enough that they would steal a mama necklace, that speaks sentiment all over it!’ I was angry and the hurt of being yet again mistreated was raw…You might be thinking, Elizabeth, it's a necklace, it's okay, why the big reaction? Why on earth was a stolen necklace so devastating for you? Because it felt like a microcosm of my life.

To get the bigger picture, let me back up a few days...

The weekend prior the Lord shared with me the kind of heart He has for His people found in Zechariah.

“Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you…The Lord their God will save his people on that day as a shepherd saves his flock. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown.”

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭9‬:‭12‬,16‬

In all honesty, the idea of God restoring twice as much to me as what I was losing through this difficult-unexpected divorce, I thought just doesn’t happen to a person like me. I told myself I am just not the kind of person to end up with that kind of redemptive story. Besides Zechariah was written to the people of Judah after their 70 years of exile ended, NOT specifically to me. But God gently whispered, ‘This scripture reveals my redemptive heart for my people. It’s in my heart to love my children, to restore, to love you. It's the consistent message my written words proclaim about my character. Why are your thoughts placing a cap on my kindness in your life? I see you as my shining jewel, Elizabeth, don’t limit what I take joy in restoring for YOU.’ I felt warmed at the thought that He saw me as His shining jewel, in a time where I was one big blazing mess, my God found me beautiful. I gave a simple answer back, ‘Okay God, I trust you.’

WELL the next couple days took quite the turn and not in the way that shouts BREAKTHROUGH, MIRACLE, or HOPE!

I had been struggling with my grief over that weekend. I grieved my first child, I grieved giving up 3 out of 4 dogs we had since they were puppies, I worried about whether I would have to re-home my heart horse for monetary reasons, I grieved the loss of my home that was once my canvas, I grieved the loss of the husband I once knew, and I grieved for my son that he didn't even get the chance to experience having a whole and loving family straight out of the gate of his life. For him, being passed from one parent to the other would be normal, he wouldn't know anything else at the very start of his life and that broke my heart. I grieved.

While handling all that loss, the one pup I was able to keep from the four we had, did not seem happy. I wondered if the apartment setting and having the sounds of a baby just weren’t her cup of tea anymore, I realized I may have to re-home her and my heart broke…I made that difficult decision with one of the other dogs we owned before I had moved out of the house. It was the best decision for our dog and for my son, but it's still not easy. To be faced with the possibility of making this decision again drained me. How much more can I possibly grieve? A part of me felt despair, why did God give me His words that brought hope to my heart for restoring my life and yet I am faced with another tough decision; re-homing my only remaining dog.

Now lets go back to the gym when my necklace was stolen.

With that brief backdrop you might see why I was a little bent out of shape. I was wrestling with the weight of grief, crying to sleep thinking I would need to re-home my pup and NOW my beautiful sentimental mama necklace was stolen. It felt like a joke, the rain just couldn’t come down hard enough. To put the cherry on top, all of this happened within a weekends time and right after the Lord gave me scripture planting hope in my heart while I struggled with loss. I was heartbroken and questioned whether I could really rely on what He had spoken to me, but I kept hearing Him say ‘Lean into Me.’ With no other moves to makes I responded with a simple, 'yes.'

Immediately upon getting home after the gym I went on Amazon and ordered a necklace that looked the closest to the one I had. I walked to the mailbox exactly seven days after my original got stolen, to get my new necklace. I was confused…In the box were two packages…I opened one and it was a mama necklace but not the same one I ordered, my precious best friend sent it to me as a surprise after I vented to her about my weekend of heartache. I opened the second and it was the one I ordered, but at the end it had a beautiful sparkling gem that was not shown in the pictures I had seen of it online. I immediately felt in my spirit God confirming to me what He had spoken to me through Zechariah 9:12,16. Gently God spoke to my heart, ‘Elizabeth, I have given you these two necklaces to confirm what I’ve already spoken from my word to you about my heart and character for my people…for you. I will restore what has been stolen from you in your life and you are a sparkling gem in my eyes. Even if your circumstances look the opposite of my promises to you now, does not mean for a second that they will not come to fruition. I’m teaching you how to protect, cherish, and steward what will be given to you. I love you.’

God gave me back double and the necklace with the gem confirmed what He spoke to me about being a sparkling gem, beautiful and radiant in His eyes. My friend did not know I had ordered myself one, I did not know she ordered me one and for them both to arrive on the same day exactly 7 (in the Bible the number 7 represents completion-perfection) days after my original was stolen. That's not coincidence, that's supernatural.

Shortly after, I did not need to re-home my pup because she suddenly had symptoms of a UTI and turns out she was just off because of that! With some antibiotics she was back to herself. I wear both my mama necklaces always together as a reminder of what God had spoken to me. After that rough weekend, while I did lose a necklace very important to me, I ended up gaining more than what I had before, along with gaining deeper intimacy and trust in God which made those two necklaces incredibly meaningful. He will do what He says He will do.

Maybe you feel like God is just not hearing you, seeing you, or caring.

Maybe you feel like I did, that major turn-arounds just don’t happen to someone like you. Like you’re just destined to have the rain cloud over your head no matter where you go.

God hears you, He loves you and “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭28‬

He will give you what you need in each season to carry you through. His heart is in restoring you, healing you and taking back the ground in your heart or life that the enemy stepped his feet into.

I encourage you today, if you are just hanging on, continue to believe the very last word you know confidently in your spirit the Lord has spoken to you and cling to that over anything you see happening with your physical eye. Abraham is a great example in the Bible of someone who continued to believe in God's promises to him. He never denied the physical realities that would make the promise impossible, but that recognition never trumped his belief that God would still pull through on His promise for Him and His wife Sarah. "Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:19-22. Continue leaning into the Lord, He will show up for you in the most unexpected ways! We certainly cannot cap His kindness for us!

If you’ve never heard from God, invite Christ into your heart and give Him a chance to speak to you. God’s supernatural presence is more real than maybe you have ever experienced, so go ahead, call on the name of Jesus and experience Him. He won’t let you fall. If you are wanting to take that next step with Christ, check out my page about beginning relationship with Jesus.

Until next time, I love you all!