Like A Father on Christmas Morning
Many of you know that my husband & I live on the 20 acre retreat center called The Sanctuary at Bear Creek. You may not know that we used to live next door on an 8 acre piece that we absolutely loved! The recession of 2007 required us to move away. We were heartbroken, never wanting to leave. But God's ways are so much higher than ours! His Goodness & Love do FOLLOW us all the days of our lives... read on to hear the story of the "Birth of The Sanctuary"
It was the recession of 2007 & God had something incredible in store for us!
The building industry had come to a screeching halt & my husband's business was smack dab in the middle of it. We had 5 children still at home to raise. The recession forced him into a change of career. We needed to move an hour away. It was one of the most agonizing times of our lives.
We lived on 8 acres that filled with precious memories of family & friends. Our plan was to live there all our days. We wanted that property, in this period of history in which so few things in life are stable or permanent, to be our family’s “Home” our “Walton’s Mountain”; that we could always come home to and find strength.
There we were. Life had just flipped everything on its head and our plans wouldn't be turning out like we thought. Heart broken & not understanding why we had to leave, I remember a time as I was packing & cleaning every last crevice as my last love offering to this place, asking God, "Why is this happening?" His gentle words back to my heart, "I want you to trust me. I'm going to bless you more than you can imagine."
God sees the end from the beginning. Every step, He is planning for how he is going to bless us even if at times it doesn't seem so to us.
We did have to move and over the next 7 years we would make 5 moves the transition required of us. We didn't know all the blessings God had waiting that would change our lives. Without those changes our path & our passion today would look very different.
Then one day years later we got a phone call out of the blue. The owners of the property next door to the place we loved, had 20 acres. They had told us numerous times they weren't going to sell but build on it or give it to their children. There they were, offering to sell it to us!
This! The place that we loved more than any on earth! We had prayed to buy that land many times. We had gone back to visit and walk the state land adjacent and still it brought tears to our eyes. We were happy where we were and yet this place was like no other in our hearts. We thought the answer was no, but it was "not yet".
The memory of God's word to me in the master bedroom that day in agony as I poured out my broken heart not understanding why we had to leave floated to my mind. I remembered Him telling me to trust Him that He was going to bless us beyond what we could imagine. I thought of all the life changing work he had done in us in our time away.
All of a sudden I saw Him as a Father before Christmas. He couldn't tell us the secret He knew all along. We would be coming back. He was going to bring the acreage we had always wanted. I imagined him feeling like he would burst, wishing He could tell us, but he couldn't. Then on Christmas morning there He was with the camera watching the look on our face as we bound down the stairs to see the gift we longed for with a big bow right underneath the tree!
Jumping and shouting, our eyes glistening with huge smiles on our face.. running to hug him and kiss His cheeks. "Father you knew all along! All you ever wanted to do was bless us!"
June 25, 2014, 7 years, 7 days and 7 hours after we drove out of the driveway with broken hearts we were back again!
Surely goodness & love WILL FOLLOW me ALL THE DAYS of my life. No one will ever convince me otherwise.