When A Diamond Finds A Diamond

Mark Epple, an unemployed Architect, finds a 12-Carat diamond ring and returns it to its rightful owner.

Mark had a great time skiing with his family on Colorado mountains. He was waiting in the drop off lane of Eagle county airport on his way back to his Minneapolis home when he noticed a small ring shining in the bright sunlight. The yellow stone was so big that Mark thought it must be a child's costume jewelry.

At his home, Mark inspected the ring closely and realized that the stone was a genuine 12 Carat diamond. This diamond ring was actually given to Janice by her husband Roger Ward on the occasion of their 30th anniversary. She had taken it off her fingers in the car on her way to airport and placed it on her lap. It just fell off her when she got out of the car.

There was a heavy snowstorm the following morning, and the strenuous search by the county's curbside staff and American Airline employees went in vain. They searched ramps, the parking lot and baggage area, and dug through snow to no avail.

Jancice spent a sleepless night thinking of her diamond ring, she just wished that someone would find it and use it, deliberating only on the positive aspects. It was a great surprise to her when the airport authority called her back with the news of the ring.

On a ABC TV interview, the interviewer asked Mark, “Anybody else might of have kept it, why did you give it back?”

Mark replied, “It's not mine.”

Mark wanted nothing in return for his good deed, but he got something anyway.

The question is, where do these Mark Epples' come from and what do they teach us? In our time, when crime rate is so high, specially in the big cities, when we are taught to treat all strangers as potential threat to us, how the real diamonds like Mark Epple survive? How do they overcome great temptations, specially at the moment they are down?

In that there is a lesson for the rest of us that indeed all those stories of angels, and God's trials may perhaps be not entirely our imagination.

Article first published as When A Diamond Finds a Diamond on Technorati.