Heavenly Surprises

Well, I mentioned in my last post that I had lots to catch you up on.  And I mentioned that we were in Texas.  Did you catch that? 

The first thing I think I should tell you about is about our new house.  So many of my previous posts were about our home in Virginia.  And I loved it. Leaving that beautiful, 100 year old Craftsman behind, leaving the porch swing, and the view of the Chesapeake Bay was one of the hardest things I've ever done.  As I drove away, headed for Texas, I knew I was doing what was right, what I had to do, and yet, I could feel my heart breaking as I left. 

But our loving Heavenly Father has a way of rewarding us for doing what He calls us to do.  And so I want to tell you about it. 

When I first left Virginia, I headed for Dallas.  I had a daughter and son-in-law and three precious grandsons just north of Dallas, and it was our plan to possibly stay in the Dallas area.  But we weren't sure, so as is my nature, I couldn't just wait until we were sure to look for houses.  Instead, I looked for houses all over Texas.  It is a new state to us, and I know very little about Texas.  So I didn't really know or even pay very close attention to where the homes were.  The important part was determining what we were looking for in a home, what was in our price range, and build the dream of a new life in Texas.  While I was looking, I found a few that seemed ideal.  I would save them, show them to all the family, take votes.  One in particular was a wonderful amount of land, a generous sized house, the front yard looked like a park, with so many flowers!  It already had a barn, and a playset for the grandkids, and had forest and a creek for the kids to explore.  It just seemed like exactly what we would want.  ......And it was under contract within a couple days after I found it.  Still, I had found the kind of property we were looking for, so I began to ask my Heavenly Father to provide us some home that was similar to this one, and to let us know it was the right home when we found it. 

Within a couple months, Darling Husband was offered a position.  Not in Dallas, after all, but in San Antonio.  We were kind of excited about that, since we'd visited San Antonio several years ago.  It's a beautiful city, with patriotic and amazing history, wonderful people, and a culinary heritage that is world famous.  Great place for a couple foodies like us!  We moved, settled in to an apartment while we found a house, and contacted a realtor (who happened to be an old friend I hadn't seen in decades, so that was amazing!) 

We had looked at....maybe 15-20 houses, enough that I was beginning to wonder if we'd be in an apartment forever. That's about the time our realtor said he had a house he thought we'd like to see, that it seemed to fit a lot of what we were looking for. 

As we pulled down the driveway and around the corner to the house, what was sitting there on this beautiful property, but the house!  The house I'd fallen in love with months before, in Dallas.  The house everyone in my family had already been in love with.  The house I thought would be perfect.  The house I asked God for. 

I can hear you now, "But you said it went under contract?"  Yep.  It was.  It was under contract for several months before the contract fell through, and it came back on the market just in time for us to find it.  A wonderful gift from a loving Father. 

So I guess you think my everyday joy today is my house.  Well, I do love my new house.  We are slowly getting acquainted, I'm slowly learning her quirks, and I'm sure one day, I'll love her as much as I loved my Craftsman on the bay. She even has a porch swing, although the view is very different. But today, my everyday joy is my wonderful Heavenly Father, who loves us so much more than we know, and gives us so much more than we deserve. 

My everyday joy today is Matthew 7:11.  If you then, full of your sin nature, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in Heaven give all good things to His children who ask Him?    Isn't that a joyful thought, indeed!