| A bit of background on this testimony--- We've been uncertain whether we should add on to our current 2 bedroom 1 bath home (a bit small for our family of 5!) or if moving into a larger home would be better. We began to look around town, and stumbled across this 2 story older home with a great front porch and nice yard. Turns out the place had sat for months, no takers in a very fast-moving market. When we saw the inside we understood why. It was packed FULL of junk the owners had left behind, and needed LOTS of love and patience, paint and elbowgrease to restore it to the grandness it deserved. Despite this, it was love at first sight for us! Immediately we spoke with our bank who said "No problem! Make the formal offer". We sheduled a second walk-thru with the intent to make the offer right after. The very moment we completed the walk-thru, the Realtor's cell phone rang. Turns out another couple had just made an offer and it was accepted. There was a moment of shock and dissapointment-we just KNEW this place was "it"! Then, here comes a sense of peace that defies understanding.... and now, the rest of the story: It was at church the following Sunday that understanding hit me so hard I thought I'd pass out. That house wasn't about the house at all. Sure we desired someplace better suited to our needs, and we fell in love with this one at first sight. But it held a higher purpose, something that now speaks volumes to us, and hope it does to you too: it's a symbol of what God sees in us! Here's this home, pretty good on the outside (rather like the exterior we let others see). Now, step inside, into the place fewer get to view. At first, it looks allright doesn't it? Maybe a bit of dust here and there, but nothing major. Keep on walking though. My goodness! What is that?! There's so much garbage, debris everywhere! Hmmm, wonder what's behind that door there under the stairs? Didn't even see it at first. Ack! More junk, deeply hidden (but just because it's hidden behind a tightly closed door doesn't mean that space couldn't have value, does it? Imagine the uses it could have, the treasures it could store, if it was just cleaned out!). Upstairs doesn't get any better, perhaps it's even worse. By the time you are all done looking, you'd probably write this place off as hardly worth the effort to fix it up! Now, here we are. We saw the potential in that house despite the junk, walked from room to room almost in tears, saying "I love it! I want it!" Isn't that what God is like? Sure He is well aware of the problems-the trash that needs taken out, walls that need redone, cracks that need patched, the messes behind tightly closed doors and small spaces noone else might think to look in or behind....Still He sees beyond it all, wants us, loves us, despite the flaws. "God does not judge by external appearances" Galations 2:6 (that nice exterior can be quite a fooler to us though, can't it?) "When you were yet dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ" Colossians 2:3 (WOW-just think about it! We were a mess, yet even while we were, God was willing to step in and make something of us!) He sees in us those things others would dismiss as impossible! That house wasn't going to come clean-become what it could be-without help, without someone with the vision to make it happen.....and neither can we! "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life" John 3:16 (would God have made that ultimate sacrifice if He didn't know what we could be? THINK NOT!!!) "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31 (That about says it all, folks!) |
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