On our family farm is the cutest little block building that everyone calls the Milk Barn. It was built in 1953 by my husband’s grandfather. Well, I say little, but in reality, it’s a nice size. It had to be because, as the name implies, it was where they used to bring the cows in for milking. However, over the years, as the times and seasons changed, it was found to be a place more useful for other things. At one point, Marvin used the building to house meat rabbits which he raised to sell. He was about 14 when he got into this venture.

My husband’s dad had taken some rabbits and cages in a trade made in exchange for reducing the cost of a Heating and Cooling unit they had installed for a customer; and, Marvin’s rabbit business was born. At one point if you went inside the old Milk Barn you’d see at least 50 cages, each housing a rabbit being raised for the purpose of food. But, as most things gotten into by young teenaged boys, this only lasted for a couple of years, at which point the building was emptied out of all the bunnies and their cages.

Eventually, this cute block building was simply used for storage, a place to house salvageable items that had been removed from jobs the men had worked on over the years. You could go in and dig around to find various pieces of board or lumber as well as some old windows and doors. Most people would have simply discarded these items because of their age or need for repair, but with a little elbow grease and effort, these aged old worn objects were able to be turned into very useful and beautiful additions to a number of other projects, our house for example.

Marvin wanted sliding glass doors on the back of our house in the multiple locations that doors were going to be required. And, we do in fact now have those; but, at that time, I really wanted French Doors. It wasn’t an argument between us though. We didn’t have enough money to buy all the sets of either kind and were trusting the Lord to lead us to His will and provision for our home. I will say that Marvin was more on the lookout for the French Doors I desired than he was for the sliding glass ones he wanted to see used.

We had been able to purchase one new set of French Doors. These were hung in our main floor dining room as a way to go outside onto our deck. However, we were still left needing two more sets of doors and one single in the locations we had decided to hang them.

Marvin knew he wasn’t going to find any sliding glass doors while digging around in the Milk Barn looking for any kind that we could possibly use. But, I could tell he was sincerely excited when he discovered and brought out three French Doors. Two were a set and one was a single. The set of two French Doors was hung in our upstairs dining room. The single he pulled out became one of the exterior doors in our master bedroom. I was so thrilled!

Since I was a young girl, I had always thought this type of door was beautiful and romantic. We were both grateful for the find. But, we still needed one more set to hang beside the bed on the main exterior wall of our master bedroom. This would allow us to have two huge “windows” to look out across our back yard and pond while still in bed. It would also allow us to walk directly onto the deck from our room. A luxury, I know; but, we figured that there wasn’t that much difference in putting actual windows there or having doors when it came to the cost. So, we chose to install doors.

There was only one problem, we couldn’t afford them. But, by now, I had come to realize that God’s promise to build our house out of the excess of society, if we remained obedient to His plan, was true! IT WAS TRUE, PEOPLE!! So, I walked into our bedroom and stood in front of the place we were desiring to have this final set of French Doors and I prayed, “Lord, You know where there is a set of French Doors in somebody’s garage that they are never going to use. Would You please bring them across our path? In Jesus name! Thank you, Lord!” This was a Monday.

Wednesday night at church (two days later), a friend of ours came up to me and said, “I have a set of French Doors in my garage that I’m never going to use. Would you like to have them?” He repeated my prayer back to me verbatim. VERBATIM!

God had him come up to me and offer the doors to us in exactly the same words as were used originally when I prayed. He wanted to show me that He was listening. HE WAS LISTENING, PEOPLE!! To my prayer, in my unfinished house, on my farm, in my little community, in my small southern state….

In Psalm 139 David sings:

4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.

17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me,
O God! How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

He knew my prayer because He was standing there right beside me. It was His delight to show me that He was listening, and He did so deliberately. His thoughts toward me are precious and abundant. He planned for all the French Doors I could have ever dreamed of, not because those doors mattered; but, because He wanted to show Himself to be present in my life in a way that was bigger than money. If I could have just ran out and purchased everything I wanted, or if I had never believed that He cared about the details, I never would have seen Him standing there right beside me…listening.

How about you, do you have any thoughts you’d like to share? If so, please leave a comment below and…

Let’s Grow Together!

(Read Part 1)