Bearing Witness to Blessing

Things have picked up speed in the last few weeks and I don't want to miss the opportunity to breathe in deeply and thank God for the blessings we have been witness to during this time of change.

After a crazy year of R's almost non-stop traveling, we are moving toward living together as a family.  We aren't there yet but we are moving in the right direction.  The process began in August with several job possibilities and culminated in a job change.

On October 15, R returned from Australia after a month in Brisbane.  He had one final week at work. We began laboring in earnest to get the house ready to sell.  On October 25, R was unemployed until he began his new job on November 1.  We listed our house for sale on October 29.  The listing went public on the MLS on November 2.

R left for his new job on October 31 and started his new job on November 1.  We had house showings on November 4, November 6, November 10, November 11 and November 14.  We had three offers for the house, two of them full price, by November 14. 

On November 2, the children and I traveled to our new area to look at houses with R.  We'd looked at more than 15 houses during previous trips.  None of them were our house.  R and I looked at five houses on Sunday with no winners.  The children and I looked at five houses on Monday and fell in love.  R looked at the same house on Tuesday and came back with a list of concerns about the home the children and I had started calling "The White House".  We were crushed.  Thursday, he went to look at the house again and returned dreaming dreams.  By Friday, we were in agreement on the house.

After accepting an offer for our house on Monday, November 15, we put in an offer on the dream that God is growing in us.  The White House Farm. If all goes well, we will be moving in time to put a Christmas tree up in our new living room. 

These past few weeks have taught me a lot about what is mine and what is not.  They have also taught me about being specific and asking.  The last time we moved, I was angry about the house.  I was angry that something so precious to me wasn't precious to all.  I felt that I wasn't being compensated for the love and devotion I'd given the house and I felt cheated by potential buyers.  I totally lost perspective in the process of giving up something that I felt belonged to me.

With this move, I've been able to recognize that the house I live in is not mine.  It is God's house and it is God's gift to me.  I love this house because it shows the generous nature of my Heavenly Father.  I know that there is nothing here to cling to or feel resentful about because it's all a good gift.  When we move this home will be God's blessing to another family.

This time I've been praying very specifically about this move.  R and I began to pray about the amount we wanted for the house.  The first offer we received was for that exact amount.  The second and third offers were for more.  God has a way of giving us what we never dare ask for.  I've also been praying for a specific time frame, feeling bold and brassy all the while.  God must have chuckled as my prayers for within three months turned into within three weeks.

The final prayer that we've added during this move has been a prayer for the family that is going to move into our house.  That family has been prayed over daily for more than a month now.  I only hope I get to hear, someday, how the move and the house has been a blessing from God to them.  It's been our prayer and I have every confidence that God has heard it.

During our last move, I had a very difficult time seeing potential in new houses because I looked at them through the filter of what I was giving up.  Again, I spent a lot of time feeling the loss of my possession rather than the joy of what was to come.  Even in my stubbornness, God provided a beautiful home here. 

My prayer for house hunting this time has been that God would allow me to see our new home without the filter of the old.  That I would be given clear vision and a sure knowledge of the blessings to come.  God was gracious and I didn't spend a single moment feeling regretful or short changed as we looked at new houses.  Our new life is going to be much different from the life we are leaving here.  I can't wait to see how all of it works out.  

I feel that a large part of my responsibility during this time is to bear witness.  It's mine to pay attention to the blessings, the miraculous and the improbable along with the mundane, and to record them in my mind and share them with others.  I join a long heritage of people that bear witness and say,

"Give thanks to the Lord of hosts,
For the Lord is good,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting."