More from Arlene Timber-Henry

If you get to know me well enough, you’ll often hear me say that I don’t use the word “coincidence,” at least not with the meaning most people attribute to it. I don’t believe that things “just happen” in a completely random or totally accidental kind of way. Certainly, when it came to the series of very unusual events—at least seven come to mind—that led to me buying the fixer-upper I wrote about in today’s meditation, I’m fully convinced that each one was divinely orchestrated by God’s unseen hand.

Even now, almost twenty years later, when I tell anyone how it all came about, they look at me or react with a mixture of incredulity and astonishment that says, “Certainly those things don’t happen in real life?” And if I told you the absolutely fascinating story of selling the house after renting it out for some time, you would be even more amazed.

Many years ago, a dear friend gifted me a colorful journal that has the words of Mark 9:23. Several years later, I was delighted by a gift from another friend, this time a black-and-white ceramic spoon rest with the same verse. Coincidence? I think not. It’s one of my favorite scriptures and perhaps the one that I quote most often. Why wouldn’t God decide to bring it into my life in varied and tangible ways?

And yet, I sometimes wonder why even as believers we seem so surprised when extraordinary things happen to us or people we know. We say, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4, NIV). We pray, “To him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20). We remind ourselves that “God moves in mysterious ways,” and at the same time we tend to label these types of occurrences as mere flukes? I think God deserves more credit than that.

I give God all the praise for leading and guiding me to that little house, for the physical and financial resources God provided for its renovation at just the right time, and for the strong support of my husband and the rest of my family as I took on that project.

More than anything, I am truly grateful for the inspiration it provided for this devotion, which is allowing me to share God’s message of restoration and transformation through a very simple and relatable example. We are all works in progress and, like any house whether old or new, we are in need of ongoing spiritual upkeep and maintenance. We need the Holy Spirit’s guidance and direction daily to keep us in good form and to rebuild us where we have fallen apart.

A popular song in my church this year goes, “I have a very big God.” Our very big God wants to do very big things in each of our lives, communities, and churches—things never done before, inconceivable things that defy our imagination, things so big that they seem impossible. As I continue to do my best to delight myself in the Lord, those are the kinds of desires I keep asking God to lay on my heart. Because I know that if I can dream them, God can manifest them.

Won’t you join me?