This Old House

Most mornings, when I wake up early, I sit in the rocking chair in the living room, drink my coffee, and watch through the front window the daily sun rise over the neighborhood trees. Sometimes I work on a bible study, sometimes I read, always I pray, and those prayers frequently thank God for this view of his never-changing goodness - the sun rise - and the neighborhood we live in with the pleasant streets that curve around, and this old house we call our home.

When I first moved to Michigan from Southern California 12 years ago, I lived in a townhouse less than a quarter of a mile from where we live now. I would go for walks through this neighborhood in those days, and think how much I loved it here, these curving streets and tall, tall trees, peaceful homes and happy people mowing lawns and washing cars in driveways. I remember praying then, too, about how much I would love to live in this neighborhood someday... sure, then, that I would not be able to because naturally these homes cost far more than we could ever afford.

Lest you think God is one who is distant and doesn't care about the secret desires of His Children... here I sit, in my home, in The Neighborhood, watching the sun rise... reflecting again on how God gave all of this to us. He didn't have to. He did because I longed for it. He did it because He loves me.

The first house we bought is not far from here, actually, and it was a sweet little house with a huge backyard and a huge mortgage. But nothing else about the house was huge, and we outgrew it when Susie was born. There was a period of time when it was so awkward to live there, much as we loved that house too, because we just didn't fit. We had tried to sell it, but that was when the housing marking was collapsing, and no one wanted a tiny house with a huge price tag.

But circumstances at the time - read: God's Mysterious Ways - led us to looking at the real estate available to us in our area, thinking we would buy a second small home to own as a rental. It was a buyer's market, you know, and small homes with small price tags were flooding the market.

So while Billy was praying for God to do something to change our difficult circumstances of living in a tiny home that didn't fit us and couldn't sell, I was perusing the internet listings of homes for sale in our price range, and came across this one.

I knew the street name immediately.

I double-checked it.

There was no way a home on that street in that neighborhood could be that price, I thought.

There must be something seriously wrong with it, I thought.

I called the listing agent and set up a showing for that afternoon. And besides being cosmetically ugly, there was nothing wrong with our house. And I knew, at that point, that it was our house.

This Old House. We gave it some TLC... new paint, new flooring, a new bathroom. It gave us a new lease on family life. It is not a huge house, but it's big enough for a family of four with room to spare for those we love who come to stay with us sometimes. It is certainly not a perfect house - it could use a lot more TLC. Someday. But This Old House sits on one of the curvy streets of the neighborhood I loved as a 21-year-old, and now we're the ones out mowing our lawn and washing our cars and our kids are chasing fireflies through the trees at dusk and I'm waking up at dawn to thank God, again, for this gift.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 

James 1:17

Trust in the LORD, and do good;

Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 

Delight yourself also in the LORD 

And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 

Commit your way to the LORD, 

Trust also in Him,

And He shall bring it to pass. 

Psalm 37: 3-5