A couple months ago, Eddy and I were in the apartment that we will live in and we were painting and cleaning and getting it ready to move in. As I sat and looked out the window, I asked Eddy how long ago it was that his sister and brother-in-law had built the building. (Our apartment is the second floor of a building that had been sitting un-finished and empty). He told me that they built it about ten years ago. I started thinking about where we all were ten years ago. Ten years ago Guille and Shelley had been married for a few years, Sarah was a baby and Mark was on his way and they had just started a church, the school didn’t even exist yet. Ten years ago Eddy had was not yet a Christian, and I was just a year out of high school. At that time, I was on the wrong path, I was very angry and I had built very high walls around myself. Ten years ago, the last thing that I was thinking about was what God had planned for my life. But ten years ago, God built me a house.
I thought about everything I had been through over the last ten years. I thought about all the plans I had made for my life, the mistakes that I had made and frustration I had felt when things didn’t seem to go my way. Relationships had failed, plans to move away fell through, and jobs didn’t last. What I did not know through all my frustration and disappointments, was that God had already chosen a career, a husband, and place for me to live, and that every step of the way He was preparing me for a life that I knew nothing about. Looking back, I can clearly see how the jobs that I had and the people who came in and out of my life were preparing me for my work in the mission field and for my future marriage.
Ten years ago, God built me a house, even though I was probably the last person who deserved it. He loved me anyway and He worked in my life and He brought me to the Dominican Republic. As those workers were laying those bricks and as that apartment sat empty for so many years, God was preparing both me and Eddy. He knew that, years later, we would finish the house that He built for us. And we will now live in that house as we start our new life together working for His purposes in the mission field. That is what He did for us, even though we did not deserve it. And that day a few months ago, He opened my eyes to see that truth.
When all of that hit me as I looked out my windows at the mountains and the beautiful view, I had never felt so special and so loved. And I think that for the first time, I started to understand the unconditional love that our Father has for His children. The unconditional love that He has for me. I don’t deserve it, I can’t earn it, but He gives it to me anyway. I also feel so safe and secure in His hands. I have no idea what the future holds for me and Eddy, I don’t know if we will stay in the DR for the rest of our lives or if we will end up here in the states or if we will go to a new mission field. What I do know is that whatever the future holds and wherever we end up, God is already preparing the way for us and preparing us for the journey.
