It Finally Happened!

Psalm 118:27 The Lord is God and He has given us light.

Here’s what I love: This is the Lord’s doing.

Soooo, you may remember way back in January, I shared with you a totally made up story about Will and Liz who were trying to sell their house on a hill.  Well kids, I have an update on that story that will make you smile.

First, you should refresh your memory about the whole ordeal by reading the totally made up story here.

Did you read it?

Okay, now for the continuation:

Will and Liz waited (not so) patiently for someone to buy their house on a hill.  They waited all of January,

all of February,

all of March,

and all of April. 

As the month of May neared it’s end, Will and Liz were preoccupied with the end of the school year activities.  They had been encouraged in several amazing ways to keep their eyes focused on God during this delay.  They had even learned that this “trial” of having to wait and trust was strengthening their faith and teaching them endurance. 

And so, they kept waiting.

They made beds, cleaned bathrooms, bought fresh flowers on weekends and over-all kept their home in perfect show-ready condition at all times. 

And boy did they show their house!  Liz counted up the number of times realtors had shown their house and found that they were up to 36 showings.  Liz began to joke with friends that when they reached the Biblical number of 40, THEN their house would finally sell. 

And so, on the afternoon of their 40^th showing, Will and Liz, at long last, received an offer on their house.  It was a good offer, a solid offer, the right offer.  And so, they accepted the offer and now have a contract on their house!

THE END.

Isn’t that a fabulous story!?  Did you know that it would end that way?  I must admit that there were days that I just knew it would end happily and there were days that I was not so sure…

But seriously, this is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.  (Psalm 118:23) 

All of this took place on Memorial Day.

Memorial—as in, take time to remember.

God is good like that.  He doesn’t want for us to forget who He is and what He has done.

In the weekend leading up to that Memorial Day offer, we had a blast as a family.  Bill worked Friday all night, but was then home to play with us on Saturday.  On Sunday morning I was marveling at the lovely time we were having and looking forward capping it off with date night to he movies that evening.  I suddenly had a flood of contentment wash over me.  I was so thankful for Bill, for our girls, for our house and even for the lessons I was learning in the waiting (and waiting and waiting.)  I was overjoyed by the trial.

Weird, huh?

Anyway, after all that thankfulness, another feeling washed over me—a strange reassurance: We were going to sell our house that weekend.  This would be it.  We were nearing our 40^th showing and I just knew it was going to sell.

So, I wasn’t even that shocked on Monday when our hard-working, awesomely faithful realtor called to tell us about the offer. 

The next day, I came across this verse: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonderful things.” (Psalm 98:1)

I had read this verse before and thought that I’d soon be saying that the “wonderful things” He had done was selling our house on a hill.  But, now I realize that He was working on something much more important than the sale of our home. 

The “wonderful things” are the contentment, the gratefulness, and the understanding of lessons learned.  These are gifts, but they aren’t given ready-made.  Instead, they are crafted slowly, deliberately—over time.

 

Contentment: carefully crafted by the strange tools of postponement and delay. 

Gratefulness: poured slowly into the heart through many moments of tiny joys collecting one drop at a time, but eventually overflowing.

And Understanding: The mysterious gift of comprehension taught gradually through repeated lessons and occasional pain—“wax on/wax off.” 

So, I do sit here overjoyed at the sale of our home, but I also sit in awe of the wonderful things God is building inside my heart.

Tune in next time for the continued saga of Will and Liz!

Now that they’ve sold their home, will they pack it up in time?  Will they find a new place to live or will they wander in the wilderness for 40 years?!  

(Either way, God is with them…and we are pretty excited to see what He does next.)