Come through the front gate, if you like… it’s open.  I would like to share with you one of the reasons we fell in love with our present home. We had prayed that the Lord would open the doors he wanted opened and close the doors he wanted closed.   But it seemed unlikely we would be able to buy this home.  Ours had to sell first and the price on this one was out of our range.

When we walked up the driveway to view it for the first time, having parked on the street curb, we were swept away by the abundance of enormous trees.  Ian and I have always loved trees. Our children had spent their childhood years until this point surrounded by forest…our own forest.  This house we were viewing was the only one that all five of us liked and could picture ourselves dwelling in comfortably.  It was a piece of country in the city.

We were not leaving our old place because we didn’t love it any longer. We were leaving because we loved our children more.  They needed more healthy choices for friendships.  “Bad company corrupts good character” had begun to play out in our old neighborhood.  I was accused of loving my children too much.  Guilty as charged.

It was over a year after first spotting this home before we could make a successful bid. We had listed for a second time; however, this time for sale by owner and we now had a good offer on our place.

Meantime, as a year had passed, the house we wanted had gone down in price and was also for sale by owner. The seller had renovated the top floor and heavily mulched all the perennial borders.

Because the owner wanted a family, who loved to garden, to buy the place (Guess who?) she lowered her price even more for us.  Wow!  God really does know how to open doors. He even allowed us to wait until the whole place was tweaked, more, too.

The tree that sealed our fate was the arbutus tree.  Once I saw it, I groaned because I knew I was sunk.  Ian especially loves Japanese maples and the kids raid the cherry trees and climb the fir trees to see the glacier and the city lights.

Yes, God certainly made trees pleasing to the eyes and he certainly says “yes” to prayers he believes are in his will.

And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground –  trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.  Genesis 2:9 a

If you have a desire that seems unreachable; you may want to ask the Lord to open the doors he wants opened and close the doors he wants closed.  This gave us such tremendous peace as we waited.  “Thy will be done” is a shorter version of this same petition.

Thankful for answered prayer—and trees.

Wendy