Sorry! It’s been over a year since part 1 ended with me contracting chicken pox soon after we moved in! I had never had it as a child and wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy as an adult… I felt so ill! I was off work for three weeks, partly as I was infectious early on, but also because I was too unwell to drive to work, do my busy marketing job and drive home again. I think I just slept a lot of the time! And, to top it all, I was left with two scars on my face as a memento – whoopee!
Aside from that though, we got the house rewired, and had the front garden gravelled so we could park. As we’re right in the corner we don’t really have a kerb as such, so getting the cars off the road was important as it’s quite narrow. For some reason, the previous owner liked old carpet, so he’d carpeted over most of the front garden (yes, really!) and used some old logs to hold it down. I presume he thought it would suppress weeds, but all that happened was the mud squelched through from underneath and the weeds seeded on top! We also had old carpet over the end of the back garden and a couple of extra rolls up in the loft! Needless to say, it all ended up at the tip!
Renovating was a labour of love as we uncovered old features and restored them, and I learned a lot about the history of the road and the house from my elderly neighbour, who had moved into the adjoining semi as a newly wed in 1929! What a shame that the old cast iron kitchen range was gone, but we still had two small cast iron fireplaces upstairs, which we restored as a feature. I had inherited some old dark wooden furniture from my aunt, which went perfectly in this cottage-style home. We were very happy and two years later started our family, which I’ve written about elsewhere!
We loved our spacious garden and the greenery, the peace and amazing assortment of visiting birds! We’re near to a large area of woodland and open fields so had all kinds of avian visitors and I got quite good at identifying them. What a difference from where we had lived previously. It was great having room for the boys to play in the years to come too. Not a lot of room indoors, but outside we had a climbing frame with a swing and slide, room for ball games and for small boys driving recklessly in pedal cars! Really, our family was so blessed! We never had big expensive holidays, we hadn’t even had a honeymoon! We didn’t have luxury cars or much spare money, but we had what we needed, that money really can’t buy. God is good!
Anyway, I wanted to tell you something that I only discovered very recently…
If you read part 1, which I’ll attach here, you remember the passage from Jeremiah 32, in which Jeremiah buys a field…? I don’t know what made me dig deeper, but that field was in Anathoth. It was in the territory of Benjamin. Anathoth was a sanctuary city and is listed in several places as meaning “answers” or “answers to prayer”. There are various other connections to this name, but that one really caught my eye. Living here, in this house, in this place, was SUCH an answer to prayer! We grew spiritually, and as a family, and have been involved in impactful ministries over many years. We’ve made friends for life and, now I’m on my own, it’s the one place I feel safe and secure and “at home”. It really was a sanctuary and the Lord’s provision for the long term future (the deeds are secured to last a long time, Jer 32:14) and I’m so grateful.
For years, I had a little card with the following verse propped up on a shelf…
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
I think it’s in with my old bible notes and prayer journals now, but I need to look it out. God is good. So very good, always. He knows our story from beginning to end. Of course we will have struggles, hard times, sadness, adversity – we live in a fallen world – but with the Lord we will always have HOPE, summed up as “Holding On, Praying Expectantly”. As children of God we should hold onto him and be expectant as to how he will provide and care for us, in response to our prayers and requests. He always listens, and always acts, though sometimes not in the ways we expect!
Praise the Lord, for he is good and his love endures forever….
The Finished Work 