Preparing the Way

Mary and Robin had put in a couple counter offers before they and the sellers finally agreed on a price. The cottage was theirs! It was a bit of a relief but now they would have to sell their house. The agents wanted to list their home on Thursday and here it was Sunday. Worse they would be by on Wednesday to take pictures.
It was a blessing in disguise that Robin had taken this particular week off for holidays. They had planned to paint their bedroom anyways. Mary had just to buy the paint. She had picked up all the accessories on sale over the last year and had them stored in her closet. Little did she know she would be getting everything ready to sell the house!
Mary was exhausted by the end of Monday as that day had started with painting the wood French doors between the dining and living rooms that Robin had installed. After that job she had taken the ceiling fans’ blades down and painted them. She had painted the wooden frames and liners for the old Mexican pictures she had picked up at a yard sale. Between these jobs she cleaned and fussed and Robin focused on painting the actual bedroom.
It was almost done by Tuesday night except for putting up all the final touches that would sell this room. The next day around lunch hour Mary stepped back and took a breath. She was pleased. The dark and lighter cream colours on the walls and trim looked marvellous. Adding the red framed pictures, the lamp shades in red, and the other small red touches made the room pop.
By 4:24pm it had all come together and the agents would be here at 4.30pm to take pictures of the interior. Mary was pleased and knew even if the house didn’t sell that this room had needed a makeover badly. It now complimented the rest of the house’s interior decor. She was glad in a way that it happened so fast because if they would have had more time they might have taken the whole week to do the job and now they had a couple days to relax and enjoy their holiday. The house was cleaner than it had ever been even though the garage was packed to the brim with all the excess. Boy, they would have to have some big garage sale once this place sold.
It was now Thursday morning and the agents had come the day before taking measurements and pictures of the whole house. They came and went so quickly that Mary felt quite a letdown. All that work and it seemed that it was for such a brief moment. Mary knew this was not the case for today the listing would attract many buyers and the process had just begun.
The momentary feeling of despondency was followed by uneasiness and insecurity. All the doubts and concerns of leaving started to fill Mary’s heart: were they making the right decision, what would happen to the friendships she had made, and would she be alone out there? The house they were moving to was in such ill repair, this one was just so perfect right now, and maybe this wasn’t God and on and on went the angst.
During prayer the reassuring word came that all things work together for good to them that love God. Romans 8:28 restored Mary’s confidence that no matter what: God had always worked out and would continue to would work out things for her good no matter what!