"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
Three months ago we sold our house in England and moved to Ankara, Turkey. This time, it was a proper 'goodbye' to England after 36 years of a happy life in lovely Hertfordshire. We already had a two and a half year’s trial of living in Ankara, so the final decision to relocate was taken after a long period of gestation and primarily due to our family circumstances.
Nevertheless, I felt sad about leaving our home and friends. I was very uneasy about the move and all the logistics associated with it. On the one hand I trusted God to take care of the whole procedure, but not having all the answers to all steps of the move laid out before me in clear writing, my trust at times was seriously challenged..... until this one particular Sunday. On that Sunday something happened that firmed up my trust in God's care and showed me beyond shadow of doubt that God was definitely on the case and that He indeed has it all worked out to the tee.
So what happened on that Sunday? Listen to this. I had been been packing, sorting things, getting rid of the rubbish we accumulated over 23 years of living in our house long before the actual move. On this particular Sunday we were working on clearing the loft. Our son popped in to give us a hand, so we were all happily beavering away at our tasks. At some stage my husband came across a couple of old bikes that needed to go down and be stored in the garage for further dispatch either to the tip, or a charity shop. Many other things came down as well and slowly the garage started to fill up. At lunch time we were pretty much done with lifting heavy boxes and needed a little break.
I prepared lunch and just as we are getting closer to the end, on our third or fourth cup of tea, there’s a ring at the door. Not expecting anybody to turn up at that time we look at each other blankly. Somewhat annoyed at the interruption, my son gets up and opens the door. Through the open door to the kitchen we hear children's voices and the following conversation:
- 'Hi, we are from the neighbourhood'. - 'Hi, and, ....( a pause).... what can I do for you'? - Well, we need a bike.... do you have a bike that we can have? ..... pause....
- Well.... yes.... as a matter of fact we have. It's your lucky day guys. Guess what? We have just taken two bikes from the loft and they are in the garage now. Do you want to have a look at them? - Oh, yes, please.
We hear the garage doors coming up, more chatting and five minutes later our son comes back to the kitchen. - 'Did you just hear what happened? These two boys rang the bell and asked if we have any bikes that they can have. So, I gave them the two bikes that have just come down from the loft, pumped up the flat tyres and they just walked off with them.... and they didn't even say 'thank you'! They just walked off, cheeky!'
We were all sitting there dumbfounded. We had just witnessed a miracle. We had two of God's angels turning up on our doorstep who took away free of charge two awkward and bulky items that otherwise would have to be taken somewhere for disposal, thus saving us additional time and effort! We couldn't believe the easy and seamless solution that just presented itself when needed! But more astonishing was the fact that in the 23 years of living in that house we have never seen those boys before, or had anybody knocking on our door with the suggestion that we part with some of our belongings. If this wasn't a divine appointment I don't know what is!