Her Jewelry Box

; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. Song of Songs 4:9, NIV

My memories of my wife's jewelry box are how poor it is. I still have it. It is one of the few things I took with me when I moved into my apartment. Not that this box and its contents have any quality or value. The box is plastic and the jewelry is cheap.

She did not care for such things, or of fancy clothes. She had one long gown, which she was buried in. No make up, no hair dos. A couple of bobby pins did it for her. Yet she could sparkle without them.

Once I was eating with her aunt and uncle when she came through the door in a wine colored corduroy coat. Her aunt commented on her new coat. She plucked at in an off handed manner. "It's cheap, but it'll get me through the winter," was all she said. She had a determined and cheerful manner. At that moment I thought, "I want to marry you!"

Her cheerful toughness never left her. She kept it through the thirty five years of our marriage until she died, knowing her time was limited to hours. She told me during our last talk, "Knowing you has been a trip."

"Really?", I asked. She looked at me in mock rebuke.

What will our robes be like in heaven, and what will our crowns be like? I long to see her finally decked out as she deserves.