Friday, May 21, 2010

Every House is Built...


I built my first farm beneath the spreading branches of a fir tree at the edge of the garden when I was about eight or nine. I used a hoe to scrape out a creek to wind amongst the ferns and gathered sticks to make a field for animals to graze in. I picked rose hips off the wild rose bushes for sheep, tiny burs from the burdock for hens, then added a cow I cut out from the Ward's catalog. My brother built a barn and a house out of scrap lumber. My farm was complete.

Or was it? I needed a family.  It wasn't until I carried the family I cut out from the catalog that my farm became a real farm. I loved that little family. Years later, the tree still stands, but the posts are gone. I have no idea what became of the house, or barn, or the precious family I carried back and forth in a shoe box.

My husband and I built a house together when our children were small. It grew board by board and so did the memories. Beth lost a doll inside the walls . . . years later she remembered she'd put it there for safe keeping. Her two-year-old brother poked nails down a knothole. My husband found them years later, a strange mountain of rusted nails alongside the foundation under the house.

Our children are grown now-all six of them. They've gone on, some live in houses built long before they were born, some to build houses of their own, others to share the home they grew up in with their parents. The happy boy who stuffed nails down the hole has a brand new house in heaven that his Father in heaven built for him.

Hebrews 3:4 says: ". . . every house is built by someone but He who built all things is God."

Looking at my family, I see God’s hand working there—He is still building.   Our Creator loves families, they're important to Him.  We can leave our burdens concerning our families in His tender care.  We can trust He has their best good in mind, and in this there is peace.

8 comments:

Beth Niquette said...

I loved what you wrote here, Mums. I liked your little farm and how you related that story to building life and family in God.

tera said...

What a wonderful blog! I found you just today and it is amazing and uplifting. I really like this post about your house.
My husband's grandmother and grandfather built a house of their own as well. But instead of a doll hidden in the walls, his grandfather hid some silver dollars a long time ago. Grandpa passed away and no one else knew where they were.
When Grandma died a couple years ago, we briefly considered taking a metal detector to the walls, but didn't. What a surprise someone will eventually have!

I am sorry to hear your husband is having some problems, I will add my prayers.
Thank you for reminding me (which I need a lot) that God is good and "has our backs" at all times.

Hugs.

Catherine said...

Such a joy to see a new post from you, Eva! Your stories are so poignant, and bring such joy and comfort to my heart.

How blessed your family has been, to have had you and your husband as their nurturers and teachers, and to have been brought up in the Lord.

I love your little childhood farm... how sweet it all sounds, complete with its own stream and food for the animals, as well as shelter for its family... taking care of God's beloved children and creatures.

God has blessed you with so many wonderful experiences - now precious memories - what a Full Heart of treasures you possess. Thank you for sharing your lovely heart and passing the blessings and treasures along to all of us...

Simply Debbie said...

DEAR EVA,
I JUST FOUND YOUR BLOG AND GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME...YOU ARE AN AMAZING WOMAN OF GOD.
I READ SEVERAL OF YOUR POSTS AND YOU ARE SUCH A BLESSING AND AN INSPIRATION.
I SHED TEARS WITH YOU WHEN YOU CRIED OUT TO GOD OVER YOUR HUSBAND AND WENT DOWN TO THE STREAM TO WRITE. I HAVE WROTE JOURNALS UPON JOURNALS OVER THE YEARS ALL TO GOD AS DID MY ONLY DAUGHTER. I SAW WHERE YOU HAVE A SON THAT GRADUATED TO HEAVEN...I HAVE ONE SON AND DIL AND MY BELOVED, AMY GRADUATED TO HEAVEN OCT. 23, 2009.SHE WAS 33 YEARS OLD AND PRAISE GOD SHE LIVED 20 YEARS LONGER THAN THEY SAID SHE EVER WOULD. SHE FIRST HAD CANCER AT 10
1/2 YEARS OLD WITH 4 YEARS OF CHEMO AND 7 WEEKS OF RADIATION. SOME DAYS IT IS REAL HARD...EVEN THOUGH SHE WILL NEVER SUFFER AGAIN AND IS IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD JESUS. I THOUGHT I NEEDED HER MORE THAN HE DID BUT SHE WAS JUST ON LOAN AND HIS WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS.
WE TOOK CARE OF HER AT HOME WITH HOSPICE CHECKING IN...SHE SUFFERED SO AND HAD A TRACH WITH A BIGGER THAN AN APPLE TUMOR GROWING OUT THE SIDE OF HER NECK. SHE HAD A FEEDING TUBE BUT COULD NOT TOLERATE TUBE FEEDINGS AND SO FOR 50 DAYS, SHE ONLY HAD WATER THROUGH HER FEEDING TUBE. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, WITHOUT GOD TO LIVE 50 DAYS ON WATER. SHE GOT DOWN TO 47 POUNDS.
I WILL INTERCEDE FOR YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND FROM THIS DAY ON.
I LOVE HOW YOUR HEARTS DESIRE ENDED UP IN THE V OF THE ROCK HEART...THAT IS HOW SWEETLY OUR HEAVENLY FATHER TALKS TO US AND HE HAS ALWAYS TALKED TO ME THROUGH NATURE.
MY COUSINS AND I BUILT US A LITTLE HOUSE AT GRANDPA AND GRANDMA'S HOUSE. WE WERE ALL LINED UP AND SPANKED WHEN THE NEIGHBOR CALLED TO LET GRANDMA AND OUR MOTHERS KNOW WE WERE PULLING ALL THE SILK FROM HER CORN....WE HAD TAKEN A WALK THROUGH HER CORN FIELD AND THE SILK FELT SO SOFT WE THOUGHT WE WOULD JUST COLLECT IT AND MAKE A RUG FOR OUR LITTLE HOUSE.....WE LAUGH ABOUT IT TODAY BUT WE NEVER FORGOT THE PURPOSE OF SILK IN CORN.
HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY AND MAY THE SON SHINE BRIGHTLY.
HUGS AND BLESSINGS
SIMPLY DEBBIE

Deann said...

Dear Eva,
What a wonderful story, you are so gifted in expressing your feelings in words. I am so glad you are blogging again after so long away.
Sometimes it seems that we enter into an extended times of travail in or lives. I know that God has had your arm these last years as you have passed through so many trials. Your faith in him has been a comfort and strength to you.
I believe that families are forever...that we are all one big family and God is our Father. I know that someday we will be with him forever. I believe that someone who loves Him as much as you will be forever in his sight.
I pray that you will continue to be blessed with strength sufficient for the day. Thank you for inspiring us all with your beautiful words. You always remind me what is important in life.

Many Blessing, Deann

Anonymous said...

I found you! I have been a follower of yours, but so sorry have been on a winter vacation and miss everyone much.
I enjoyed your story which certainly caught my attention how you put it into our daily living as christians.
I want to ask if you know Stuart and Jill Briscoe? I am from Wi. and have attended there church for nearly 20 yrs. Of course they are retired but still teaching the bible to all of us in there own way.
Thank you for your post today.. It really rang in.!
Hugs,Darlene

Tammie Lee said...

Hello Eva,
I hope this finds you well.
This post is such a wonderful peak into your life, your family and your home. Thank you so much for sharing this!

Enchanted Oak said...

Hello, Eva,
I'm a writer as well, but of magazine articles and poetry rather than books. I'm always on the lookout for fellow writers, and perhaps that's how I stumbled my way to your place today.
I've read your posts and honor your faith in our Lord. I wish I had such faith, but faith is my husband's spiritual gift, not mine. I am finding it difficult to praise God and rest in Him these days, as I watch my mother, only 79, slowly destroyed by Alzheimer's. If I had faith in God's plan for this dear woman who loved Him so when she was in her right mind, I might be able to see her journey into darkness as a journey into the light of the Lord's Spirit.
I've seen you through your posts continually turning your trials into lessons about God's grace, and I'm in awe. Right now, I'm in the difficult place that perhaps you've experienced with your husband, loving and caring for someone who is vanishing before my eyes. It feels like the valley of the shadow of death, and it seems cruel of God to visit this on one of His beloved children.
But what faith I have tells me that the Lord loves my mother more than I do, and He will lift her up one day into that spectacular world we don't know.
I walk with sorrow, and I've learned that there really is a time to weep, to mourn. I've had plenty of rejoicings. I've planted and built and loved. Now is simply my time to experience grief.
God bless you and your husband, and as someone said earlier, may He give you grace sufficient unto the day.
Regards from Chris