Homeless. Helpless. And Hectic. We’d been living in a rental home for a couple years with plans to buy it. As the landlords and economy would have it, the home had gone up in value. Our budget hadn’t. The landlords put it on the market and we gave 30 days notice to move out knowing we had nowhere else to go. Worry. Lots of worry. Thickets. Lots of thickets. Faith. Lots of faith finding. Looking back, God. Lots and lots of God. Good, gracious, grand, and gripping God!
The shepherd wouldn’t let us be stuck in thickets. He got to work. Or rather He cued the green lights He’d already set ready to go. This wasn’t His first look at our lives. And it wasn’t His first flight of angels to send. This earth has never had an impromptu shepherd. My sister and her family opened their garage door for our furniture and boxes and opened their spare room for our “home.” They’d even prepared a place for our daughter to put her own bed and hung a picture of our family on the wall of the room. The last boxes were loaded in the truck and piles of dirty cleaning rags lay on the driveway floor; my back was bent and my family of three looked like we’d just run a spartan race. We’d packed, moved, cleaned, and repaired in 2 weeks, moved 2 cords of wood (with help from students) that we’d just ordered for winter, and maintained a work and school schedule of life. That Sunday evening, we grasped tired hands together and prayed in the driveway of a home we loved. Then left. Then drove to my sisters home where a candlelit dinner of soup, salad, bread, and family hugs awaited. I didn’t know if I was more grateful for soup or more grateful for God. Thickets gone. Flight of angels sent. Faith finding in progress.
Over the next three months of homeless, God would continue to ask that we trust Him. I would move from lambs wool to worry multiple times. I learned you should never pack winter clothes when you’re heading into winter and you should always keep the hyper dog away from the un-hyper dog. I would also learn compassion from a sister that brought trays of three hot chocolate mugs to our room each morning and welcomed us to hang her family christmas ornaments on their tree. As following God and family decisions went, we opened escrow on the only home in our budget at the time and closed four days before Christmas. If moving out of our house in 2 weeks hadn’t been enough, going through escrow out of boxes would do a girl in! But as God would have it, the house was deemed a “rock solid” house, intact with soundness and safety and ready to go. There’s never been a sweeter Christmas table than one made from packed boxes and dixie paper plates, and there’s never been a simpler happiness than one made from lambs wool instead of worry.
When we have the option to worry or wear lambs wool, what do we choose? When we have the option to ask for a flight of angels or struggle with the shepherd, what do we choose? The real answer is we choose both. We choose both because we’re human. We choose God when we admit it. God. Lots and lots of God. Good, gracious, grand, and gripping God! Yes please.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight” Proverbs 3:5-6.
“For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Psalm 91:11-12
Lamb Lines 