In 2017, we put our house on the market. We had been feeling for some time like we needed to move closer to our kids’ school. It often took an hour driving them to school each morning and the commute was quite stressful. We also had a sense that our time in that house was complete. We worked hard to get our house ready and listed with our realtor. However, the reality was that showing our house to prospective buyers was beyond stressful with seven kids. It felt impossible to keep it clean and ready to show at any given moment, especially with a baby who took frequent naps.
After a few months of exhausting and fruitless efforts, we decided to take it off the market. Although discouraged, we prayed that God would intervene and bring us a buyer supernaturally if he wanted us to move. It took a lot of faith to believe that God could do that, or would do that for us. But we knew our limits, so we decided to stop striving and start trusting.
Soon after taking the house off the market, I began noticing something strange. I thought it was just coincidence until it happened so frequently that I realized God was speaking. Every time I would get in the car to drive somewhere, whether an hour away or a mile down the road, I began seeing construction cranes everywhere. It’s like I couldn’t escape them. Often, I would be thinking of something completely unrelated or random, then all of a sudden my vision would be pulled to the side and would instantly focus in on something in the distance…another crane. I would frequently see 10-15 on any given drive, whether distant or local.
I was so baffled by this. I decided one day to stop and consider the significance and purpose of construction cranes. It didn’t take long to find my answer. A crane is a piece of equipment which takes a load that is humanly impossible to carry and transfers it from one place to another. In that moment, I was enlightened and realized God was telling me he was getting ready to move us! Moving our family of nine had proved to be an impossible task. But what was impossible for us to do in our own strength, God was perfectly equipped to handle. I was amazed at this revelation and felt new hope that something was about to change, and that it would be God doing it, not us.
Soon after I realized this, we received an unexpected email from the parents of our daughter’s friend, asking us if we would consider selling our house to them! They were driving through our neighborhood one day looking at houses for sale. Our house was no longer on the market, but when they stopped in front of our house, they felt impressed to contact us to ask if we would sell to them! They had never been inside our house and didn’t even know we had been trying to sell. Talk about supernatural!
We ended up finding a house closer to our kids’ school and moved that summer. The buyers for our house were the most gracious and accommodating people I have ever worked with. The house we bought was unexpectedly sold to us at a very low price (another story). The entire deal was marked by God’s hand; his strength and provision were evident everywhere. It was amazing to witness!
In thinking of what this blog should be called, I realized the stories I will be sharing are of the many ways God speaks, how he intervenes in our everyday lives. My eyes were opened to these truths in a completely new way that summer…the summer of the cranes.