The House The Lord Built
A few years ago John and I made the decision (after years and years of talking, praying, and thinking about it) to buy a new home. We began the exciting and tiring search of looking for the house that was perfect for us. We had ideas of what we wanted. We knew we needed more square footage for my home office, workout room, etc. and we had an idea of a floor plan. We hunted for a long time, but couldn’t find the house. Then, during John’s third bout with cancer, we found it in the Indian Brook subdivision. It was perfect! It had a two story great room, a catwalk, a huge room for an office upstairs, plenty of bedrooms for visitors, a finished basement, a two story entry way, a first floor master suite, a large utility room, three garages… it was perfect! And the best part was that it worked within our finances! The realtor called to see if we were truly interested. I told her what we’d offer, but that we weren’t putting it in writing unless the owner said, “Okay”. She called me back and said, “The owner says to put it in writing.” I explained that John and I would discuss it that evening, so we were certain all medical expenses were covered, etc. She said, “What medical expenses?” I told her that my husband wasn’t bald, but that he was going through chemo. She never returned my calls and the house had a sale pending sign on it about three days later. We were heart broken. We’d try to keep our chins up and very regularly say, “ It’s ok, God’s got something else even better planned for us.” Sometimes we meant it and sometimes, even though we didn’t feel it, we’d say it out loud just to plant it in our spirits. All too often, though, we’d feel, “Why didn’t we get the house in Indian Brook? It was perfect! It had everything we wanted. It was the right price! Why couldn’t we have just gotten that house? We’re never gonna find one like that again! Soon the words would follow, “No, God’s obviously got something better planned.”
We continued to look only to find nothing and feel disappointed. We looked for a year and began discussing the idea of building. We decided to pursue it and started looking for land. This felt impossible in Lima. There were no lots! There was a neighborhood we loved, but we hate debt and the price would have been more than we were comfortable spending. We sadly left the idea of that neighborhood behind. So we kept looking, very regularly thinking, “Why couldn’t we have just gotten the house in Indian Brook? Yeah, yeah, God’s got something better planned.” We finally found a lot on a beautiful wooded ravine with a bubbling brook running behind it. This worked. Now all we had to do was locate a plan. This did not work. We looked through hundreds of them. When we’d locate one we wanted, we’d find that it wouldn’t fit on the lot! We would have had to build a house we didn’t really want in order to be on that lot. We aborted the idea of building because nothing was working out and we were beginning to believe we were supposed to be okay with simply staying in our present home. We’d occasionally still think, “Why couldn’t we just have gotten that house? Oh well, God’s got something better planned.”
After several more months we decided to look again into buying. We set out on the trek of looking at houses for sale. None of them were right. One evening, as we pulled out of a neighborhood, we noticed a house being built across the street. We decided to look at it, only to definitely discover it wasn’t what we wanted at all. That night I said to John, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could find a house in the process of being built? You know, I’ll bet you God’s building us a house right now!” Two days later my husband returned from a bike ride pretty excited. He said, “I think I found a house! Come on, come look at it.” It was framed and slightly under roof. I liked it-I didn’t love it, but it was hard to visualize beyond the two by fours. We decided we’d look into buying it. We were at the point of frustration and just wanted to find a house. We sat down with the builder and realized that financially it was doable. We began driving over every day, sometimes 2-3 times a day! We were imagining furniture inside, measuring closets, who knows what all! We were beginning to really believe it would be ours. One Saturday, as John was leaving Planet Health, he called and said, “I’m stopping over at the house, want to meet me?” I said “Okay.” (I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I’d already been there three times that day.) So, as he did whatever it was he was doing, I sat on the steps in the foyer and waited for him. As I sat there I began to look around. All of the sudden it hit me! “Oh my gosh, there’s the 2 story great room! And look, here’s the 2 story entryway. Look up there, there’s the catwalk! Over here’s the first floor master suite. Back there’s the huge utility room, the three-car garage, the enormous office, the basement. Oh my gosh…This Is That House, This Is The House In Indian Brook … only it’s brand new and we can finish it however we want! God had something better planned. We didn’t get the house in Indian Brook because He was planning on building us a new one all along.” I sat there that day and wept at God’s goodness. And as you read this story, standing in the beautiful home God built for us, I am still overcome at how He works all things together for good. Incidentally, God built our new home in the very neighborhood-Amanda Lakes-that we originally wanted a lot in, but felt the prices were too costly for us! God is indeed so amazing! He really did have something better planned all along… something spectacular!
Maybe you’re going through a time where you’re hurt, bitter, angry or confused about why something didn’t happen for you that appeared would be perfect. May I suggest boldly that God’s got something even better planned. Rest in that, believe it, speak it out loud. After all my friend, you’re reading this in the house The Lord built. Donna Krech (2002)