My husband and I have lived in the country most of our lives, so when it came time to retire, we looked for a small acreage on the edge of town. We took pride in our log home with its large beautiful yard, flower beds, and fenced garden. We had ash trees, apple trees, and a huge cottonwood tree. But, it was yet another place without my favorite trees – blue spruce and red maples. Nothing seems more beautiful to me than when nature dresses a blue spruce in a flock of white in winter or a maple in a vibrant gown of red in autumn.
As beautiful as our yard was, it took a lot of time and effort to keep it that way. We began to re-evaluate what we wanted in the golden years. We realized that if something were to happen to one of us, the maintenance would be overwhelming for the other. We visited with Jason – a trusted realtor and told him our needs and wants.
Discouragement set in the first week of house hunting. We live in a beautiful area so real estate values are high and things move very quickly – often the same day they are listed. For this reason a contingency is very seldom granted by a seller. Unfortunately, we needed to sell our log home before we could invest in a new place.
We took our concerns to God. But still, doubts crept in each time we looked at a newly listed home in our price range. The professional pictures on the website looked promising, but in reality, these places either needed a lot of work, were smaller than we wished, or were so old the heating bills would not be manageable. Many of these homes seemed dark and dreary and when we would return to our car, we carried these same sentiments with us. Would we ever find a suitable place that had adequate space and was in good repair? We had hoped to be moved in by fall, but summer was coming to an end and we were no closer to reaching that goal than when we first started looking.
How would God manage to find what we thought we needed within a few weeks’ time and then to provide us with sellers that would allow us a contingency? My mind wanted to believe He could do it, but my flesh was lagging far behind. I reminded myself of all the miraculous examples in the Bible – the Red Sea parting, Daniel’s survival in the lions’ den and Jonah’s in the whale, Jesus feeding the multitudes, not to mention His resurrection. I repeated Psalms 121:2 to myself numerous times – My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. All these things helped keep me hopeful until the next time we looked at, yet, another unsuitable home.
I checked the real estate ads often. A three bedroom home with a two car garage and promising pictures was listed and I called our realtor immediately. We viewed the house that day. It was bright, cozy, had adequate room, and was ready to move into. Against my nature (I like to sleep on things) we made an offer that day. Our realtor convinced the seller’s agent to accept a contingency allowing him fourteen days to get our log home under contract. It was risky – if it didn’t have a contract within those two weeks, we wouldn’t have a new home to go to and yet we’d be contracted with the realty company to continue to have our current home on the market.
Long story short – there are things I miss about our “old” place, (the new rustic hickory cabinets and the stone fireplace) but looking back, I see God’s deep handprint on our new home. He was in control all along and He cared about our desires. He even threw in some extras that touch my heart – a bright and sunny craft room and a spacious, cheery office. No need to craft and write at the kitchen table! How did I know that God’s hand print was in this? Well, he left an imprint in the backyard – the large red maple that shows off in the fall and the huge blue spruce that stands majestically in a robe of flocked white at the first snowfall.
Until next month – keep on readin’ and I’ll keep on writin’.
