2002 The small house we had been renting for several years was about to be sold. Our landlady had been put in a nursing home and her son had called to see if we wanted to buy it before they put it on the market. We declined, so a few weeks later he sent a real estate agent over to evaluate the house. At the end of her visit, she said, "Okay, I have everything I need. Do you mind if I start showing the house while you're still living here?"
"Um," my husband quickly replied, "Can you wait two weeks? We will be out by then." She had no problem agreeing with that and then she left. We then started trying to figure out where we going to move. I started packing up the things that didn't have to be used on a daily basis and my husband began looking in the newspaper for places to rent. We needed somewhere to go - and we needed it fast!
The two of us had very different responses to this sudden deadline: my husband was concerned about finding a place while I felt excited. I felt like God had something in mind and He would show us just like he told Abram, "Go to a land I will show you." Three or four days had gone by, and we still didn't have a place to move to even though we now had just over a week to be out. We had looked at a few places, but the prospects weren't very promising. I remember laying in bed one night praying about it. "Lord, if only there was someone we knew who had a house sitting vacant that would let us live there until we found something permanent. Maybe it's just an extra house they have that they inherited or something." I still felt like Abram, but at the same time the days were clicking away.
During all of the search for somewhere else to live, we still had to continue our regular obligations. I was homeschooling our nine year old son, looking for a part time job (because of the added expenses for moving), plus packing up our belongings. My husband is a self employed musician who had project deadlines, teaching guitar lessons, plus trying to find a place to live.
On Friday, one week before we had told the real estate agent we would be out, CB was teaching a student how to make an E chord. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by, "Call Robbie about his mother's house." His response was, "What?" "Call Robbie about his mother's house." Then he understood. Robbie's mother had died a few years ago and her house was sitting empty. CB could hardly concentrate on the rest of the lesson. In fact, he left the teaching studio before the student had time to put his guitar in its case! He went inside the main part of the house and immediately called Robbie, a long time family friend and former guitar student. Before CB could actually ask, Robbie said yes. He was needing someone to stay in the house and take care of it while he decided what he wanted to do with it. He wouldn't accept any rent, all we had to do was pay the utilities and take care of the yard work plus we could stay as long as we needed. Since Robbie lived out of town, they made arrangements to meet at the house that Sunday afternoon.
It gets better. The house was not huge, but it was large enough that we could store our stuff that was boxed up, CB could continue with his projects and teaching students, and it was only two minutes from where we owned a piece of property where we eventually built a house and moved to! By the following Sunday we were completely moved out of the old rental house, had a yard sale for the stuff we didn't want to move, and were settled in at the temporary house. We were relieved to have the breathing time for deciding on a permanent place to live and Robbie was relieved to have his extra house occupied by people he could trust.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
The Faith of a Child
1994. We had gone out to dinner with my in-laws and afterwards we went to the boardwalk to look at the river and toss french fries to the birds and ducks. Our son was about two years old and loved to watch the ducks waddle up, expecting to be fed. It was a very pleasant evening, but as it started grow dark we all decided it was time to get out of the wind and go home. I was buckling our son in the car seat while my father-in-law got behind the wheel, my mother-in-law got in the front passenger seat, and my husband was getting in on the passenger side behind his mother. Car doors were slamming shut when suddenly my husband started screaming, "Open the door! Open the door!!!" His mother had shut her car door on his hand. When his hand was free, there was an indention across his middle and ring fingers between the middle knuckle and the knuckle behind the fingernails. The middle finger was the worst and had a blood blister developing. We hurried home so we could put his fingers in ice, praying and crying. He was in terrible pain.
Something very important to note: my husband is a musician. More importantly, he's a guitar player. Even more importantly he's a fingerstyle guitar player and it was his right hand that was shut in the door. A guitar player doesn't want to lose a finger, but it's really difficult to do a three finger roll with only two fingers.
When we got home, I left my husband sitting at the kitchen table with ice on his fingers and our little son sitting in his high chair next to his daddy. I was walking my in-laws out to the car and trying to console them that everything would be alright (whether I believed it or not). My mother-in-law was in tears. When I finally made it back to the kitchen, my husband was remarkably better in spirits.
"Bennett prayed for me," he said. "He looked at me and said, 'Pray?' so I nodded. He held my hand, we bowed our heads and he said, 'Daddy... boomboom... amen.'"
"You look better."
"I feel better."
Bennett smiled.
He kept his fingers in ice until bedtime about an hour later. The next morning, his hand was perfectly fine: no swelling, no pain, no stiffness, and no blood blister. I suppose the ice could be given the credit, except for one thing: there is a dent in the bone of his middle finger. It can be felt, but not seen.
Matthew 18:3 - 4
"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Something very important to note: my husband is a musician. More importantly, he's a guitar player. Even more importantly he's a fingerstyle guitar player and it was his right hand that was shut in the door. A guitar player doesn't want to lose a finger, but it's really difficult to do a three finger roll with only two fingers.
When we got home, I left my husband sitting at the kitchen table with ice on his fingers and our little son sitting in his high chair next to his daddy. I was walking my in-laws out to the car and trying to console them that everything would be alright (whether I believed it or not). My mother-in-law was in tears. When I finally made it back to the kitchen, my husband was remarkably better in spirits.
"Bennett prayed for me," he said. "He looked at me and said, 'Pray?' so I nodded. He held my hand, we bowed our heads and he said, 'Daddy... boomboom... amen.'"
"You look better."
"I feel better."
Bennett smiled.
He kept his fingers in ice until bedtime about an hour later. The next morning, his hand was perfectly fine: no swelling, no pain, no stiffness, and no blood blister. I suppose the ice could be given the credit, except for one thing: there is a dent in the bone of his middle finger. It can be felt, but not seen.
Matthew 18:3 - 4
"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Remembering
While reading aloud the book, The Lights of Marfa by Doyle Dykes, I had a longing for God to work in my life like He has in Doyle's life. My husband expressed the same thought and then we both realized - He has! Several instances came to mind as we discussed it and so I decided to chronicle them with this blog. The posts will be made as these things are remembered or as they happen, so they won't be in any particular or regular order. There may be folks who will read this blog and disregard the events as coincidence. That's their right and I respect it. Please respect my right to believe that what has happened in my life is "A God Thing."
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