As strange as this may seem, I have actually had this post written in my drafts for a long time. I am a great believer in thanking God for things that have not yet happened, and I have been continually thanking God for the house He has given us even before we put our house on the market. He sees the whole picture and so why shouldn't I thank Him for what He already knows is going to happen? Well today is the day that I can say the biggest of all the thank you's as we are actually in our new house!
After 9 months of being in Legacy Church but separated by distance, after 6 months of our house being on the market, after 55 days of turmoil between accepting the offer and moving in to our dream house, we are finally there. And between you and me, I am going to die in this house as I am not moving again ever!!!!
Before we even had an offer on our house, God picked out these verses for me:
"He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers" Psalm 1:3
"But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." Jeremiah 17:7 -8
This of course ties in with what I was saying previously about wanting to set down roots somewhere. As a family, we want to be that tree planted by the stream that is Jesus, with our roots being sent out to Him. That way it doesn't matter what comes our way, we will be able to stand firm and still produce fruit for Him. But I felt God saying that this was more than just a metaphor for how our faith would be, but an actual picture of our new house.
In September we first went over to Mexborough to look at the new housing estates, and looked round the Shimmer one first. It was lovely, but there were no available houses to suit our budget and needs at that time, they had all been reserved/sold. The Shimmer site was right next to the river but most houses didn't look out over it. So we went over to the Lavenders site at Pastures Lane and found a house there that was in our price range and suited our needs (or so we thought!). It was a lovely house, but was just in an estate, nothing special. When all of that fell through in the December, I started praying again about our new home and that is when this image of a house next to a stream was given to me.
When we received the offer on our house we went back to the two estates to see if anything was available (with not much hope of finding anything). At that time, the Lavenders had nothing at all available, so we went to visit Shimmer. They had two houses possibly available, both of which backed on to the river. The one we loved had been locked in to a part exchange, so we made our peace with that and reserved the other one. But then miraculously, the couple who had reserved the one we loved back out, so it became available. This was a house next to a stream, with a balcony looking out over the river to be a constant reminder of those two verses - that our roots are now firmly placed there, like they are also firmly placed in Jesus.
To remind myself of God's faithfulness through this difficult and stressful time I am planning to have those verses printed and put on the wall in my new lounge that overlooks the stream, so that I always remember that it was God who promised this house to me and who put all the plans in place so that we could get it. I promised that if we did somehow pull of this move that all the glory for it would go to God, so that is what I am doing.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has supported us during the last few months by listening to our moaning, praying for us, reminding us of God's grace and just being there for us. We wouldn't have made it without you and we hope that you will accept our invitation to come and join us for a meal or a coffee in our new house soon!