A Reminder That God Is Still Good And Faithful
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9
Before Kevin and I made our move up to Kentucky last year, we decided that we were going to look to buy a house in our new home state. That being said, we took several weekend trips to look at houses that were on the market. It was quite an exciting (and exhausting) process.
During one of these weekend house-hunting trips, there was a beautiful house that came on the market the day before we drove up. We went to look at it that Saturday, and I immediately fell in love. I know you’re not supposed to do that when you’re house shopping, especially with the market being as crazy as it was. I know better than to fall in love on a first date, so why would I be dumb enough to fall in love with a house the first time I saw it? I don’t know. But fall in love I did.
It was so easy to picture us living there. I could see us having people over, putting up Christmas decorations, eating late-night bowls of ice cream and talking in the kitchen. It all played so perfectly in my head.
We decided to put an offer on the house before we even pulled our car out of the driveway. We knew this house would go quickly and get a lot of offers, so we wanted to make sure we took a shot.
Fast forward to the next day and we got a text from our realtor. We didn’t get the house. The owners went with another offer.
Back to square one.
I couldn’t help it when we got the news. I started crying, the weight of another let-down hitting me harder than I’d wanted it to. Kevin held my hand and sat in the disappointment with me. I called my parents, and they repeated the same things Kevin had said when we first got the news.
I heard everything I knew to be true – the Lord is still good. He has a plan. If this house had been His best for us, we would have gotten it. We’re still going to be able to find something. We can trust Him.
And even though I knew it was all true, it didn’t change the fact that the disappointment felt really crappy.
About 45 minutes after we got the news saying we didn’t get the house, it started to rain. It felt appropriate for the mood I was in. But as we kept driving, I looked up from mindlessly scrolling through TikTok and looked out the window. And wouldn’t you know, there’s a full rainbow stretched out in all its glory right in front of us.
Kevin noticed it too, and before I could say anything, he said, “Do you see that?”
“Yeah…I see it.” I smiled a little, unable to dismiss the irony.
“Do you know what rainbows stand for?” he asked me.
“They’re a representation of God’s promises,” I responded with my canned Sunday School answer.
“His promise to what?” Kevin kept going.
“…to not flood the earth again” I answered.
“Because He is what?” Kevin prodded. (This is what I get for marrying a pastor.)
“Because He is good.”
“And?”
“Faithful. He is good and faithful,” I said, half answering his question and half reminding myself of what I needed to remember in this moment.
“That’s a pretty timely reminder, don’t you think?” Kevin smiled at me, and I nodded, smiling a little too and exhaling a big sigh, like my body was trying to release the pent-up disappointment and frustration.
I don’t have a pretty, tied-up-in-a-bow, four-step process to bounce back from disappointment for you today. I wish I did. But what I do have is the ability to pass the reminder on to you that the Lord graciously dropped in front of me that rainy Sunday afternoon.
I realize there were a lot of people on the interstate that afternoon who saw that rainbow. And I understand that the rainbow could have been for someone else too. But I’m choosing to believe that the Lord was very intentional in putting that reminder in my line of sight.
Even when things don’t turn out the way we’d hoped, He is still good and faithful. Even when our timing and God’s timing don’t line up, He is still good and faithful. And even when you find out you’re going to be in the waiting room a little longer, He is still good and faithful.
I hope that reminder brings some peace to your heart today like it did to mine.