Hope Springs (Part 2) – All This and More

When my family relocated in 2018, a search for a new home was in order.

Our search started out promising.  We found the ‘perfect’ home the first weekend we looked, but the house went under contract the same day – alas, the one that got away.  It wouldn’t be the only one. 

For the next few months, we found ourselves daily poring over real estate listings and accompanying our realtor on showings every weekend, only to find ourselves beginning the process all over again the next week. 

It would have been easy to question if we had started the process too late and thus missed out.  However, we reasoned that if the house we found the very first weekend of our search or any subsequent ones had been meant for us, then time and events would have fallen into place.  So we just needed to be patient and continue trusting God in the process.

Sometimes missed opportunities are God’s saving grace.

But as time wore on, it was hard not to get discouraged.  Like a pair of well used socks, our options and patience were wearing thin.  With no prospects in sight for months on end, we could have chosen to settle on a house that didn’t really fit our needs, something less than.  Less than our needs and less than God’s best.  Instead, we chose to remain steadfast and not allow temporary desperation lend itself to permanent regret.

Sometimes dead-ends are God’s providence.

And finally, a sprig of hope appeared.  A new house came on the market that was the right size, location, and price range.  We scheduled a showing immediately and were to be the first to view it, and we held out hope that this was the one we had been waiting for. However, much to our dismay, the showing got delayed, not once but twice.  And while we waited, things took an unexpected turn.

Sometimes delays are God’s interventions.

For during the delay, we learned about another house that would be going on the market soon.  Our realtor reached out to the home owners to ask if they would be willing to allow us to view it beforehand, and they agreed to do so the very same day.  So off we went to view this home that seemingly surfaced out of nowhere. 

No question, the property was everything we could have hoped for and then some.  But there was something more, a certain presence, like a long-lost friend calling out to us – welcoming, warm, and inviting.  A familiar feeling.  A feeling of … home. 

And after taking it to God in prayer, we had peace that this was indeed the one.  So we bought it, before it was ever even officially for sale. 

Had we been able to view the other house first, no doubt we would have made an offer and ceased our search.  We might have never known about the home we bought, thus forgoing the blessings God had in store for us. Instead, we never viewed the other house, which ended up being less than a mile away.  Less than a mile away but a world apart, because the one we bought was the one God prepared. 

And as we would soon learn, God had equipped our new home with some unexpected blessings.  There’s more to that story which I’ll share in a future post, but for now, I want to linger in this space for a moment, this space of waiting and hoping.

It seems that all the while we were diligently searching – encountering delays, missing out on homes that were snatched up by other buyers first, and finding ourselves empty-handed, God already had the perfect home lined up for us, and He made it available to us through no effort of our own.

It can be easy to fall prey to impatience when we keep getting stalled, to fall victim to doubt when opportunities seem to keep passing us by, and to fall into a pit of discouragement when we seem out of options. 

But if we stand firm and keep waiting on God’s timing, trusting in His wisdom, and hoping in His provision, not only can God provide all that we have hoped for, He can provide all this and more.

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“… But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what they already have?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”  Romans 8:24-25 (NIV)

“But I [God] will bless anyone who trusts in me.  I will do good things for the person who depends on me.”  Jeremiah 17:7 (NIRV)