Isn’t That Just Like God?

Our side yard with the burned out house in the background. A study in contrasts.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1-2 (NIV)

We live in an economically depressed area. Two divisions of a major automaker moved out of our area prior to the 2008 recession. I find the landscape depressing as we go through town. We have a lot of empty building, empty homes and lots that once had houses on them. This has gone on for over a decade. I have prayed for these empty buildings, the empty lands left by these moves, and the empty houses, once viable home and business sites. The city, in the stead of the owners, has no choice but to demolish the ones that have become eyesores.

Two of the car dealerships here are owned by the same people and have been located in the north end of town--our end of town. The owners bought land where one of the plants of the auto industry that employed my husband, and two neighbor men on our street (at one time this division employed 15,000 workers.) The two dealerships presently have a sale due to the move across town.

With all these abandoned houses becoming eyesores, the city has plans for demolishing the ones that have fallen into disrepair. Recently, the house across the street was razed due to that fire back in mid-March.

This past week, as Hubby and I sat out in the yard, enjoying the peacefulness, He noticed a man mowing tall weeds in the yard across the alley. The other morning I noticed two men still working on getting the brush hauled away. I saw a third man come from inside the house; this man gave me the impression he was at least the overseer of the other two.

There is another house down the street to the east of us that has been empty for two years. The front yard was ‘wall to wall’ weeds. The neighbor who received the lot the burned out house sat on went down and mowed the front yard in order to have some compost for the lot which she plans on making into a community garden.

I found myself caught by the thought that God chose to show me that He is at work in all these things—in my neighborhood. I take this as a sign that my concerns about these things are under His Control and I have no need to worry.

Praise the LORD.