“It’s like a best Christmas present you could have,” David Penner said.

Penner lost his wedding band around 15 years ago while shopping for a Christmas tree with his family in New Jersey. When he realized it was lost, he never replaced it.

“We had each other at that time,” he said of his wife, “and that was what was important.”

This year, however, Penner was finally reunited with the wedding band his wife Nancy gave him in 1974.

The ring was unearthed in April when John Wyckoff, a third-generation tree farmer, saw something shimmer in the sun while out on his Christmas tree farm, Fox News reported Thursday. It was inscribed with the words “To David. Love, Nancy,” and the date of the wedding.

It isn’t uncommon for people to lose their rings at the Christmas tree farm and call to report it, so Wyckoff kept the ring on his window sill for months, awaiting a call. But the call never time. Hoping to reunite the ring with its owner before Christmas, Wyckoff shared the story in a video with the help of NJ.com last week. He kept the wedding date private so that only the true owner would know it.

A few days later, Penner’s sister-in-law saw the video and told him to call Wyckoff. But Penner drove straight to the farm.

It was a busy Saturday and the farm was buzzing with customers, but Wyckoff invited Penner into his house. After confirming the date inscribed on the ring and even providing a wedding certificate as proof, Penner is finally wearing his wedding band again. Being reunited with the ring this year is particularly meaningful for Penner, because just two months ago on September 30, his wife Nancy passed away.

“Now that I got it back, that’s a good thing,” Penner said in a new video by NJ.com. “It seems like somebody up above is looking down or whatever, but I guess it was meant to be. And there’s a reason for a lot of things, and maybe … it’s her way of saying that everything’s okay.”

Watch the full video below.