The Fingerprints of God

I'm sitting here with all sorts of stuff tumbling about in my head: We spent some short, but high-quality, time with our families and got much more than we probably deserved (at least, I did); school starts back up in a week, and I have to start planning for our first week back; they say here that the weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse, but I'm guessing that to us it will be like the Opening Days that we experience every April, so I think it will be bearable (though I didn't like driving in it in Michigan, nor did I enjoy shoveling it, I would welcome a little bit of snowfall over the next few days). But mostly, I'm thinking about our house. We went to Lowe's today and looked on Sears.com to check out some deals on a few appliances we need to buy. What's on my mind specifically as I write this letter, however, is our new refrigerator that we are going to buy. Though I don't yet know which model we will end up purchasing, I know that it will be black to match the other appliances. Those of you with children know what black appliances (and black cars, black countertops, etc.) leave behind...fingerprints. And fingerprints are where my thoughts skipped to next.

On everything we ever touch, we leave fingerprints. We all know this, because when we put our glasses on or take them off, we try so hard not to touch the lenses, because we're going to have to take them right back off and wipe them because just the slightest touch will leave a fingerprint that looks fifty times larger when right up next to your eye. We all know this, because when we tried to get cookies from the cookie jar when we were children, we must have left fingerprints behind, because Mom always knew when we'd been in there. We all know this, because when Horatio Caine puts his sunglasses on and does his horrible over-acting, there must have been fingerprints left behind that are going to help the CSI: Miami crew solve the crime. There are fingerprints everywhere. You know what? It's not so different with our Father.

God's fingerprints are all over our lives. He is orchestrating all things beautiful every second of every day. He loves us and wants us to come to Him to celebrate our successes, and He wants us to come to Him for comfort when things don't go like we had planned. If only we let Him, he wants to have a hand in every part of our lives, leaving his fingerprints all over us. This year, we let go of what we thought we wanted, and we let God do His will in our lives, and as Robert Frost wrote, that has made all the difference. Let me share with you how the fingerprints of God have made us new.

In late April, Lisa asked me if I would ever consider moving back to Tennessee. I said absolutely not, that I was happy where I was, we were looking to buy a house in Michigan, she was in the middle of her grad work at Eastern Michigan University, and everything seemed to be going well, according to my plans. One of my favorite sayings comes to mind now: "Want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans." Shortly after He stopped laughing, He got His hands really dirty and left all sorts of fingerprints over what would happen in the next month's time. One day in early May, at most two weeks after I had quite resolutely said "no" to my wife's thought of moving, I called her and asked her the same question: do you want to move back? I believe now that God had spoken through Lisa, planting that seed in my head that maybe we really were supposed to move back to Tennessee. It took no convincing at all, and soon we were planning our move back to where we first met. There were so many uncertainties in my head, but I can picture God at that moment, rubbing His hands together, cracking His knuckles, and saying, "Okay, time to get to work!"

What are we going to do for money? Will I be able to find a teaching job? Am I going to have to wait tables again? Where are we going to live? This is Michigan...HOW ARE WE GOING TO SELL OUR HOUSE??? Here are the uncertainties of which I wrote above, and those are no small problems. But there He was, knowing my thoughts, ready with the answers, all of which are so unbelievable that I still can't wrap my mind around them. It turned out that I wouldn't have to wait tables again, we wouldn't need to worry about money, and we would know where we were going to live, because God had a teaching job waiting for me. I had already flown to Tennessee, interviewed for three jobs (two of which I turned down offers), and had no leads. Then one day, a woman who would end up being my principal called me and asked me to interview for a sixth grade middle school position. The day after our last day of school in Michigan, I interviewed for the position and was offered it an hour later. Here is where God's fingerprints showed up so clearly in this, and why I am still amazed to this day: I never applied for, nor had I ever even heard of this job. I accepted the position, and Lisa and I continued planning our move, now with not-so-heavy hearts.

We still needed to sell our house, though. Many of you know how daunting a task selling a home is, let alone trying to do it in Michigan during these times. But check out these prints: Our house sold within two weeks of my acceptance of my position! Can you imagine God laughing and having Himself a good ol' time while making all of this happen? It's truly mind-boggling.

Continuing to leave His fingerprints all over the place, God moved us to Tennessee in late July after we signed a six-month lease on an apartment in the city of Spring Hill, less than ten minutes from my school, and everything started to snowball. Shortly after moving, Lisa applied and was accepted to Lipscomb University to continue her graduate work. After being offered a position as a seventh grade special education teacher, we were informed that Lisa's work in the program at EMU wasn't enough to warrant teacher certification in Williamson County (where my job, and the position she was offered, were). The principal who had offered Lisa the position held it for her while Lisa worked tirelessly to find a way to hold on to this position...she wasn't the only one at work. As you may have guessed, once again God's fingerprints were found at the scene, as Lipscomb University sent a letter to the county, stating that she indeed had fulfilled enough requirements to warrant teacher certification. Lisa had her first teaching position! I am so incredibly proud of her, and we are both now proud teachers in the finest school system in the state of Tennessee.

One might think that with God's fingerprints all over our lives thus far, that it would be enough, and I would agree, but God apparently did not. He led us to our new church home in Leiper's Fork, which is only minutes from Lisa's school (and which you can visit by clicking on the Grace Chapel link on the right!). This church is unbelievable and we are so happy that we have found a place where we can worship the God who has blessed us so richly. In November we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary, which have been four of the most wonderful years of our lives. We also celebrated Grace's fifth birthday! (Grace is our beautiful silky terrier and shares her birthday with our wedding anniversary - or I should say we share our day with hers.) And of course, as you may have already read, we bought our first house and will move into it at the end of January!

God's fingerprints haven't stayed in only our lives this year, but are found all over our families, too. In May, Sarah Ann Chanter was born to my sister and brother-in-law, two months early. Sarah was in the hospital for a long time, but she's grown big and strong and healthy, and now joins her proud big brother, Steven, in keeping their mommy and daddy from a regular sleep schedule. Earlier this year, after many years of working for State Farm, Mom (Darlene) retired and is now relishing her retirement as she spoils Steven and Sarah, and yes, even Grace! Our brother-in-law Steve was promoted to the rank of lieutenant earlier this month, and we are incredibly proud of him for this accomplishment.

The fingerprints of God were found on our shoulders as He comforted us when we lost two important members of our family this year. In March, Lisa's family had to make the difficult decision to euthanize their dog, Molly. Molly was so much fun, and I loved playing with her. She was a great friend and a very loyal companion, and she is missed. In October, Lisa's grandmother (her dad's mother) passed away. Fortunately Lisa was able to fly up to Michigan to say her last goodbyes to Nina. That was a rough time for the family, but again, the fingerprints show that we weren't alone.

This year we moved, acquired great educational positions, found a wonderful church, celebrated another awesome year together, saw our families richly blessed, and were comforted in times of sorrow. If Horatio were on the case, it would be a very short episode, because the evidence of God in our lives in abundant. His fingerprints are all over, and we couldn't be more in love with God. This new year, we pray that you will let Him do His will in your life, welcoming the fingerprints that will come when you've been touched by the hand of God.

As for the fingerprints on our new appliances, well...we'll work on accepting that.

Merry Christmas!

My plan was to send our Christmas cards, and then write our Christmas letter and post it here. Well, as you have figured out, I've not quite gotten around to writing the letter yet. But here's my thinking: It's a letter about 2007, so I still have two days in which to write it, so that's what I'm going to do.

Here's an update to the poll you've read at the right: I beat Travis in bowling! That's right, in a three-game series, I whooped my little brother, and he cried all the way home. By the way, he had all his faculties working so there are no excuses. Personal note to Travis: it's okay T.J., some day you'll be able to beat your big brother, but not today!

We're still in Sparta, but leaving soon. I should probably start packing. Please pray for us for a safe trip home, and for all of the fun (please note sarcasm) mortgage paperwork to come! Love you all!

News

It's not "baby" big news, but the next best thing: we bought a house! We made an offer on a house last week, and yesterday the sellers accepted our offer. We close and take possession on the twenty-fourth of January, and we are so excited!!! God has blessed us so richly in so many different ways. Here's a picture of the front of our house.











You can take a look at some pictures of our new house by clicking the following link: http://www.realtracs.com/MediaDisplay.aspx?ListingID=1067411

In other news, well, there isn't a ton going on other than that. This is the last week of the semester here in Williamson County, so my kids are doing some closing tests while Lisa's kids are doing their final exams. As you can imagine, all of the children are very excited about it all! Believe me, we're just as excited.

We're going to be heading home to Michigan later next week. With all these new developments, we want to get as much done as we can before important people leave town, so we'll miss Christmas with our families. However, we'll still be in-state during the twelve days of Christmas, right? That counts for something, I'm sure.


The weather is getting colder here in Tennessee, and it should be staying colder for a little while. I haven't seen where we'll have more 70-degree days again anytime soon. There's no snow in the forecast, but I'm sure we'll get our fill next week in Michigan!


That's what's going on here. Hopefully everyone is doing awesome, and enjoying the holiday season thus far (I got a great new Christmas tie from my Secret Santa today!). Love and miss you all.

TWIT Notes (This Week In Tennessee)

Not one of my better titles, I know, but I'm lacking a certain creativity at the moment, so you'll have to forgive me. So let's see, what has happened this past week or so here in Tennessee?

We had our first celebrity sighting the other night when we went to Macaroni Grill for our anniversary dinner (for those of you who sent us cards, phone calls, etc., thanks!). Actually, I'm not sure you'd really consider him a celebrity, considering I don't know if he's going to release an album or not. Anyway, Chris Sligh was there. For those of you who don't know who he is, he was one of the finalists on last season's American Idol. We liked him, but he was around longer than I think he should have been. Anyway, that was our run-in with pseudo-celebrity this week. One of my student's father is Toby Mac's keyboardist, and I've met him a couple of times...does that count?

Our Wii was delivered last week, and I can comfortably say that we are completely addicted to it, Lisa moreso than I, I think. The Sports game wasn't working properly when we got it, so I had to call Nintendo and have them send us a new one, which we haven't yet received. But our favorite game is currently Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. It's an awesome game that helps you with memory and other brain-related activities. It's highly addictive, as evidenced by our recent late bedtime. Hey, I figure there are worse things to which one can be addicted, right?

The weather has been nuts here. One day, it's 45 degrees, the next 65, the next 50, and now on Sunday it's supposed to be 72! I don't miss the snowfall those of you in Michigan are getting, but I miss the consistent weather. Hopefully it'll get cold and just stay there soon!

I can't blog today and not mention the huge baseball news that took place today, news about which I'm extremely excited! The Tigers traded six prospects (including Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller) to the Florida Marlins for Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera. I think Major League Baseball can go ahead and print those World Series tickets right now, baby! I'm going to try to talk Lisa into going to Florida for Spring Break and perhaps catching some Tigers games in Lakeland.

No new news on the house-hunting front. We're shopping for a realtor now, and have a few houses in mind that we really like. We'll keep you all updated on that.

Right now I'm totally procrastinating on getting the work done that I need to get done for my third and final classroom observation on Friday. Now that I've actually written those words of admittance, I think it's time I get back to doing it. Love you all!