It’s been awhile since I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and write, namely because everything in life has been so uncontrollably busy. Finally, I’ve got a moment between things on my to do list to reflect on something I’ve been thinking about. Two words: intelligent design. Not the kind that talks about where everything comes from, but rather, the kind that gives me a glimpse at the God I serve. To explain what I mean, I’m going to offer a little background on what’s been keeping me busy. We’re getting set to complete the purchase of our first home. That’s a big deal, but at face value, no bigger a deal than any of the millions of first homes purchased in every city and state in America. Maybe with a little more insight into the story, you’ll see why I’ve been pondering the Intelligent Designer and His perfect plans.

I’ll simply say one thing about the past several years. Living a life in Christ is by no means easy, and I would be lying if I told anyone that everything always works out like a Disney fairytale with a happy and perfect ending. I can guarantee only one thing, and that is that God’s ways are always perfect, sometimes unpredictable and never without a glimpse that He is always in control. The story of our house begins almost 6 years ago, when my (soon to be) wife felt an overwhelmingly strong calling for her to quit her well paying job to become an inner city missionary at our church. This calling was completely counterintuitive to any common sense argument. I was still in graduate school at the time making no money and we were planning our wedding. God confirmed His calling by revealing independently to each of us the date she should leave her job and exactly how the next steps in our life were to progress. We followed, albeit with some hesitation and anxiety, and the next several years were…not exactly what we expected. We didn’t have a financial windfall, money didn’t rain from the sky, we didn’t have a rich benefactor offer us financial freedom. We had expenses, credit cards, bills and a great deal of difficulty in paying for anything. Over the course of the next several years, we accumulated a tremendous amount of debt, we struggled to pay bills, often paid our Visa with a Mastercard, and literally lived paycheck to paycheck while falling short each month. We were left with very little except an overwhelming assurance that we had followed God’s plan for us. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that in spite of financial hardship, He provided every meal, every expense, and we never missed a payment on anything. Every time we needed money, someone (without any knowledge of our situation) would show up and offer a gift, or an unexpected check would show up in the mailbox. We saw some wild means of God’s provision.

Imagine my surprise when I had a dream one night about a year ago, and in this dream I saw us living in a house. The recurring joke with my wife is that I never remember my dreams, and when I do, they are usually boring and ridiculously unimportant. However, in this particular dream, I recognized the location and vividly remembered the intricate details. Of course, I had no reason to think anything of it, since years of financial hardship had evaporated any hope I had of investing in a house, particularly in New York City, where the real estate market is exorbitantly expensive. Then it all began to happen. Supernatural things began to take place in our financial situation. The housing market began to downturn. Opportunities at work began to arise. Mortgage rates began to decrease. Suddenly, we were in the real estate market and began shopping for our first house. I wish I could say I was surprised that the house I saw in my dream had a for sale sign in the window, and I wish I could say that I was surprised when we bid $65,000 below the list price and our bid was accepted, but I wasn’t surprised at all. You see, I realize that God is an Intelligent Designer, and six years ago, when He called us out of a comfortable situation into a wilderness, He had each step of the journey planned. He knew the trials that lied ahead. He knew how He would provide. He knew where we would love, what we would eat, how we would get every need met. God is intelligent design not just because of the complexity of our DNA, but because of the complexity of every detail of our lives. He has given me (and every one of us) a story filled with the miraculous, and I can simply stand back in awe of the God I serve, willing and ready to follow His calling.