Last Monday, I told the story of how God promised three different miracles so that we could escape Canadian winters. Two of those three miracles happened before we left, but we were required to take a step in faith and leave the country without the third miracle: The sale of our home….

But perhaps we should start with the beginning of the story….

Our house, situated in a desirable neighbourhood of our local town, had been on the market for 6 months, from April to October, the prime time for homes to see in our region. It was a lovely house, and it was priced below market value for quick sale. We had an excellent agent with a wonderful reputation representing us, and it was a seller’s market.

Why then, at the end of our second listing, did we still own this house? Why hadn’t it sold?

There were many theories. One that brought me a lot of comfort early on came from a friend who surmised that the reason our house hadn’t yet sold was because the house God had for us to move into was not yet on the market. The only problem was, we had already seen lots of nearly-“perfect” houses on the market. But without the sale on our home, we couldn’t put an offer in on another….

Since we were planning on being away for the Canadian winter, when our second listing ran out, we pulled the house off the market. After all, if it didn’t sell in prime season with a seller’s market, why would it sell during the winter? Besides, we weren’t keen on the idea of people going through our home while we were out of the country.

The week before the listing ran out, we had an open house. We decided to visit other open houses while our home was being shown, and we soon ended up in a nice home nearby. We began talking to the agent, who, incidentally, had shown our home, and when she found out what house we owned, she became quite interested. “My husband would LOVE your home!” she said. When we left that open house, I called up to her, “Get your husband to come see our house!”

The listing then closed and the house was officially off the market.

Two weeks later, the real estate agent we had met at the open house asked to see our home. She and her husband came a few times, and they put an offer on our home…. Contingent upon the sale of theirs…. By this time it was mid-November, and it was no longer a seller’s market. What chance did she have of selling her home at this time of year?

Nonetheless, I had this feeling that I needed to start packing. My husband thought it was silly. He said no one would want to buy a house full of packed boxes when we returned from the winter and relisted our home. Nonetheless, I stuck to it. I tried to only pack the things that weren’t visible; but before it was all said and done, I had packed ¾ of the house.

Meanwhile, there was no movement on the real estate agent’s house….

The week before Christmas arrived, and with it a note from our agent. The agent who had an offer on our house had just received an offer on hers! Praise God!

The bad news was, it was contingent upon the sale of THEIR home!

From our perspective, there was no hope, and when January 5 rolled around, it found us on an airplane headed to warmer climates, resigning ourselves to the fact that when we returned, we would be putting our house back on the market.

Throughout all this time, we had seen many beautiful homes that would “fit” our needs very well. These, of course, all sold. There was only one home, though, that was perfect. It had only just come on the market when we visited it, and we were pretty sure it would be sold before our return. Oh well…. God must know what He’s doing!

It was early January, and we had only been in our “winter” home for a week when we got the call from our real estate agent: Our house was sold! Wait! How did that happen? It was a horrible time of year to sell a house, and in order for ours to be sold, two others had to sell!

But the “how” wasn’t really important. We had to get to the logistics of the thing. It was a terrible time for our house to sell! We were out of the country for three months! How could we buy another place? How could we pack and move while we were away? Why, God? Why now? 

Imagine our delight when our buyers requested a closing date in early April.

Well, at least we would be back in the country, but that would leave us exactly one week to find and purchase a new home!

Imagine our delight when our agent informed us that the “perfect” home we had seen just prior to leaving was — NOT YET SOLD, and the sellers of that property didn’t want to MOVE UNTIL APRIL!

It would only leave us only a week to pack after returning home, but God had already arranged that three-fourths of the packing be done! It was totally doable! And with the electronics of our day and age, we were able to sign all the forms via the internet, line up movers, moving trucks and a lawyer, all from 4000 km away.

Then the bad news…. Our home didn’t pass inspection. The piping would have to be replaced with piping to code….

God came through again. We were able to line up a plumber from afar, someone we knew and trusted to be in our home when we were out of the country, and he promised a very reasonable price.

Unfortunately, in order to replace the piping, he had to make numerous holes in the drywall and in one room, the entire ceiling would have to be replaced. What now, God?

He came through again. Our real estate agent lined up a contractor for us, someone he trusted, and the work was begun.

That’s when it occurred to me that I was pretty glad I wasn’t at home at that point in time! I wouldn’t have been able to tolerate the mess! God worked everything out! He sold our house at just the right time for the perfect house to be available for us, and He arranged for us to be away during the construction work!

So why did we spend nine months stressing about this move, anyway? Our Heavenly Daddy had it all under control, and His timing was very, very perfect. We couldn’t have asked for anything better. I hope we’ve learned a lesson about hope through this experience….There is ALWAYS hope in God, no matter what the nature of our trials!

In His love,
Lyn Chaffart

(To access the entire “There is ALWAYS Hope” devotional series, please click here.)