Dreams and Decisions

Mary woke up the next morning from an exciting dream. In it she found bag after bag of coins worth $100’s of dollars. Included in the bags were casino coins. God showed her the next day that “money was to be found from gambling”! Mary realized that she needed to take a gamble right now! She and Robin were to take the opportunity of buying this cottage. It seemed this was a chance of a lifetime they needed to take and not delay because the scripture God gave her was from Ecclesiastes 9:11
“The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong,
Nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant
Or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”
In the NLT the last sentence is translated

“It is being in the right place at the right time.”

Mary was more than excited and she didn’t want to miss this prospect at what seemed to be a divine opportunity. Everything had happened so nonchalantly at first but now things seemed to require some quick action. They needed to strike while the iron was hot.
Later that morning on the ride into Windsor Mary shared her dream and its meaning with Robin. Robin just listened and said little. Later at home Mary found a message on her machine. It was the banker! Mary returned her call quickly and was told she had to begin negotiations to see where the sellers stood. The banker was not willing to give them a separate loan but they would have to sell their house to purchase this one. She would give them a bridge of a month during which time Mary and Robin could fix up the cottage. It certainly would need at least a month before the place was liveable. Wiring had to be changed, a furnace installed, insulation put in, painting, and whatever else it needed. Mary knew it would be a long process but the bridge would be a great asset to have.
After her conversation with the financier Mary phoned Robin. He was very positive and told Mary to phone the real estate agent right away. So Mary made another phone call and talked to the realtor. It turns out the agent, Maxine, had lost her mom three weeks ago so the conversation somehow drifted to her death. This was familiar ground to Mary and she could commiserate with Maxine because she had been through the grieving process already. It was a very good thing.
Mary and Maxine decided on the details of the agreement over the phone, the agent would prepare it, and would be coming tonight for their signatures on the contract. After she hung up Mary realized her house was a sight! She would have to clean. And clean she did.
By the time she had finished it was after 1pm in the afternoon. She sat back on the couch exhausted from the work but satisfied it was presentable for company. Mary had to make a salad for dinner and then take some leaves and branches to the town dump afterwards. There would be little time to read her book on co-dependency today, she realized. She wasn’t too excited about it anyways because chapter 8 was all about admitting who you hurt and making amends. “Ugh”, thought Mary, “that can wait”!
Leaving thoughts of the book behind Mary focused on the present duties before her and left the worse until last! She couldn’t wait until tonight and couldn’t wait for the response. Apparently, there were three sisters who were selling their parents estate. One of them lived further away and so it might take a couple days for a response. Mary smiled to herself; it was oddly familiar to Mary. She and her two sisters had been a tightly knit stocking during and after their mother’s illness. One of them lived down in Tucson and so a lot of their conversations were long distance.
Old memories started popping up. Mary decided to take a quick nap and as she lay her head down she felt herself drifting back to those old days until she slowly eased into a deep, deep, sleep.