Page 117 - Evidence of Things Unseen

Storm Warning

felt we had done well in this episode as we had placed ourselves unreservedly into the
IFather’s hands, knowing that if He did not come through for us, we would be in a real
mess. We had stood faithful against that tyrant called time, and had continued to look to
the Father to deliver us. Yet at the very end, my faith had indeed been tested severely and
I had not been perfect in my faith, and I must now tell you about it.
When I finally got the man on the phone who would be our landlord for the next two
months, I was dealing with anxiety and fear. I was still looking to the Father to deliver us,
yet I was also willing to “help him out” a little. If this man did not rent to us, we had no
other prospects and we were to be out of our home the next day. As I spoke to this man on
the phone I learned that they had never rented to others before. They had a family farm
with a dairy and large family house, and some distance removed in the middle of a field was
a double-wide manufactured home that they had bought for their five sons to live in for a
time after each one got married. One son and his wife were just moving out, and the other
sons seemed to be years away from marriage, so they decided to rent the home out.
The price was excellent, less than half of what we had been paying, and though we
rented the house without seeing it, we were to find that it was a beautiful home that had
been well kept and it was situated with a lovely lawn, and the lawn was itself surrounded
by pasture land, making it very scenic and peaceful. The owner did not require a contract
to be signed, nor did he require any deposits. Both of these things were wonderful since I
did not know how long the Father intended us to be there, and I did not have much money
at the time.
When I spoke to the owner on the telephone I asked if there was anything he wanted
to ask about us, and the only thing he asked was whether we smoked, for they didn’t want
smokers in the house. I assured him we did not smoke. As I was on the phone my family
was waiting with baited breath to hear the outcome of my conversation, for they were also
desirous of knowing that they had a place in which to move the next day. As my daughter
Kristin listened to me speaking to our soon to be landlord, she pointed to our two dogs, and
I knew what she was indicating. She wanted to know if I had mentioned to this man that we
had two indoor dogs. I politely ignored my daughter, for the thought flitted across my mind,
“What if the dogs are a deal breaker, and the man refuses to rent to us because we have
dogs? Where will we turn?”
Now, if I had a perfect faith before the Father I would have told the man about our
dogs, for God was able to work a divine thing upon the owner’s heart, or He could have led
us to another home that was suitable, or any number of things. God was not worried in the
least about us being homeless, or left without provision, for the One who fed an entire
nation for forty years in the wilderness, who caused their feet to not swell nor allowed their
clothes to wear out, the One who caused water to come forth from a rock, was neither
anxious nor worried about anything.
At that moment, however, I found that my eyes were not on the Savior who could walk
on water, but they were upon the wind and the waves that were raging around me, and I
began to sink beneath the waves. I did not tell the man about the dogs, and I justified it to
myself by considering that I was not lying, I was merely withholding information that he
had every opportunity to ask me about. I had even asked him if there was anything he
wanted to know about us, and he had merely asked if we were smokers. Besides, our dogs