If I had ever doubted what God could do with even the smallest item, I’m grateful to have been given a new perspective. I just witnessed God create a new family, and a new home, from a five-dollar plumbing part.
The Flood
It was three months ago that a small hose burst in our bathroom, producing a flood that destroyed two-thirds of our home in just 40 minutes. I previously didn’t understand how I could be unaware of the massive destruction taking place just steps below me, as I was upstairs that evening. In fact, out of the three of my family members who were home at the time, not one of us heard it. I now believe God had great purpose in that.
The Fire, The “Locusts” and the “Plagues”
I never could have imagined what God was about to bring us through in the following 12 weeks. Our trial included a flood, a fire (in the hotel where we were staying), a minor surgery, an emergency room visit, a change in schools, a change in churches, a change in job assignment for my husband, and a major change in perspective as all five of us crammed into a 400-square foot hotel room. We had some new adventures during an unplanned “stay-cation” during spring break, we found new ways to enjoy close quarters, and we occasionally witnessed to some of the other folks at the extended-stay hotel. During this time, I also finished writing my book, a process that took a total of seven years. I’ve never had such a time of concentrated calamity. This period involved beginnings and endings, breaking and building, reconstruction, redemption, and restoration. The stress of it all was great. God’s plan though, was greater. I could never have seen it at the time.
Restored to the Land
This week, as our neighbors lovingly welcomed us back home, and the movers arrived with our furniture and belongings again, I was relieved to see the many familiar things that conveyed the comforts we had known. And while the floors and the walls and the paint were all new, there was the most startling difference in the family that walked back in to enjoy it all.
God of the Flood
We might have left this house with despair as though we had been harmed, but we came back in with scars of redemption. We were not perfected, but we were redeemed. My family bonded in the flood and the fire because we weren’t alone in it. There is new meaning for me in Psalm 29:10, which says, “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood.” Much has changed, but most importantly, the ownership of this home, as it’s been transferred in full to the One who restores, redeems, and makes all things new, by whatever means He chose to do so — even to my amazement still, a five-dollar piece of plumbing.
