The Gifts of Marriage

In his blog “The Blazing Center,” Mark Altrogge recently related the following story under the heading “An Opal Ring and a Piping Bullfinch.” His point was to celebrate the tender kindness of a God who gives us more than we can ask or imagine. But it is also just a wonderful little romantic story of a husband and wife in the delightful generosity of a God-glorifying marriage.

Charles Spurgeon's wife was an invalid for many years and usually unable to accompany her husband on his travels. She writes: "One ever-recurring question when he had to leave me was, 'what can I bring you, wifey?’ I seldom answered him by a request, for I had all things richly to enjoy, except health. But, one day, when he put the usual query, I said, playfully, 'I should like an opal ring, and a piping bullfinch!’ He looked surprised, and rather amused; but simply replied, 'Ah, you know I cannot get those for you!'

Mrs. Spurgeon recalls how they "made merry" over her request for two or three days. Then one Thursday evening Charles returned from the church "with such a beaming face, and such love-lighted eyes, that I knew something had delighted him very much.” He held in his hand a tiny box, from which he took a ring and placed it on her finger. "There is your opal ring, my darling," he said, and told her how he'd received it. An old lady whom Spurgeon had visited once when she was ill had sent a note to the church requesting that someone come and pick up a small gift for Mrs. Spurgeon. His secretary picked up the parcel and brought it to Charles, who unwrapped it to find the ring.

Mrs. Spurgeon writes, "How we talked of the Lord's tender love for His stricken child, and of His condescension in thus stooping to supply an unnecessary gratification to His dear servant's sick one...I can remember feeling that the Lord was very near to us."

Not long after that God surprised Mrs. Spurgeon again. She writes, "One evening, when my dear husband came from London, he brought a large package with him, and, uncovering it, disclosed a cage containing a lovely piping bullfinch!...He had been to see a dear friend of ours, whose husband was sick unto death; and, after commending the sufferer to God in prayer, Mrs. T-- said to him, 'I want you to take my pet bird to Mrs. Spurgeon, I would give him to none but her; his songs are too much for my poor husband in his weak state, and I know that 'Bully' will interest and amuse Mrs. Spurgeon in her loneliness while you are so much away from her.'

She writes, "When 'Bully' piped his pretty song, and took a hemp seed as a reward from the lips of his new mistress, there were eyes with joyful tears in them, and hearts overflowing with praise to God, in the little room by the sea that night; and the dear Pastor's comment was, 'I think you are one of your Heavenly Father's spoiled children, and He just gives you whatever you ask for."

Mrs. Spurgeon reminds us, "He who cares for all the works of His hand, cares with infinite tenderness for the children of His love, and thinks nothing which concerns them too small or too trivial to notice.” She concluded this story saying, "'Bully's' sweet little life and ministry ended at Brighton; but the memory of the Lord's tenderness in giving him to me is a life-long treasure; and the opal ring glistens on my finger as I write this paragraph.” (From The Full Harvest, The Autobiography of Charles Spurgeon)