God's Unfailing Faithfulness: the move from Wenatchee to Seattle
God’s unfailing faithfulness is the reason I know that I can trust God. He has proven himself countless times through the stories of my life. Maybe it’s because I’m a person who has some control issues, and moving to a new town makes me feel out of control, but when I think about my own stories of God’s faithfulness, the moving stories stand out as times of intense growth and a deepening confidence in the loving God that I serve. It’s when I feel the most out of control that I seem to learn this best: God is in control and he is worthy of trust.
I’ve got one more moving story for you. The major moves in my adult life have been from Wenatchee, WA to Moscow ID, Moscow back to Wenatchee, and finally, Wenatchee to the Seattle area. My family and I have lived near Seattle for more than five years now and we know that it was absolutely part of God’s good plan for our lives. Here’s a story of God’s unfailing faithfulness and how I ended up in my current home.
We had been back in Wenatchee for eight years and had finally settled in comfortably after a bit of a rocky start. We bought an adorable Tudor style cottage that we loved and my husband had a good job, where it was possible to see him working until retirement. We had a handful of precious friends and we had our family close by. There was no reason to rock the boat.
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Then Derek’s Dad ended up getting very sick and needed to stay in a hospital in the Seattle area for months. We would go visit him most weekends. It was a long drive but Derek’s Dad was only strong enough for short visits. Since we were already there, we would make the best of it and explore the city with the rest of our time.
We loved Seattle and that love grew the more time we spent there. We started going to a church in the area and we were learning a lot from the teaching. We would spend the whole drive back to Wenatchee talking about how much we wanted to live there. After a few months of talking and praying, on one of those drives home, we decided to go for it. Our kids, ages 10 and 5, liked the idea, so Derek started looking for a new job.
There were problems though. The house that we had bought at the height of the housing bubble had suddenly lost much of its value. Also, houses cost twice as much in the area we wanted to move to, as they did in Wenatchee. And once again, Derek was looking for a job during a recession.
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At the time, it seemed to take forever, but it was actually only a couple of months from the time we made our decision until the time Derek was offered a job.
There was another problem. The job that Derek was offered was only a six-month contract position, and he would be competing with several other people for a permanent hire. That might have been fine for someone without a family to support, but it seemed crazy to give up a good job for an uncertain one, even if it was in the city where we wanted to live. What would happen in six months if he didn’t get the job? We both agreed that he should take it anyway.
We didn’t tell anyone that Derek’s new job was only a temporary contract. We knew this people would think we were crazy, but we also knew that this was God’s plan for us and that God would provide.
By this point in our marriage, we had experienced enough of God’s miraculous working in our lives, through previous, smaller leaps of faith, that we were confident enough to place our trust in God for this move. That didn’t mean it wasn’t scary though!
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We put our house on the market, hoping it would sell fast. We didn’t have enough money to pay for a mortgage and rent at the same time. When we found out how much the realtor thought we should sell our house for, we were disappointed- we would be losing a lot of money. Still, we moved forward.
The “sale” sign went up in the morning, and by the afternoon, it went back down. Not because we had sold it, even better, we had heard through a friend, that another friend would love to rent our house! She was able to move in right when we needed to move out. Her rent covered our mortgage. She has been renting the house ever since and is taking wonderful care of our house. It has been a good situation, all around, for everyone. I give credit to God there, for working that situation out so beautifully.
The house we moved into, my husband found on Craig’s List. I never saw it in person until I pulled up for the first time to move in. It has been a good house for us and we love our neighborhood. Again, I give God the credit.
My husband’s contract position did not turn into a permanent position. He was forced to look elsewhere, a good thing, because that first company was bought out, and nobody kept their job. Once again, God was taking care of us. Derek was never without a job.
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I could tell many more stories about God's provision within the larger context of this story about our move to Seattle, but suffice to say, they all point to God’s unfailing faithfulness. Maybe what we did was crazy, or seemed that way, but we were cared for throughout the process by a God who loves us and is in control.
Looking back, I would advise our younger selves to tell a couple of other; more mature Christians that we trusted, about our plans, in addition to praying. They would have only confirmed our crazy plan and encouraged us to move forward if they also felt it were God’s plan- or not. This would have been reassuring and brought more peace to the process- or it would have protected us. In spite of not doing that, God knew our hearts, and he protected us.
I can say with confidence that it was a good move and God has used it in remarkable ways. I know that I’m right where I’m supposed to be. It hasn’t always been easy. God never promises easy, but he does promise to care for us, and he has proven that he is faithful in this, over and over.
“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
