The Hand of Providence

11 years ago my hubby and I bought a used dining table set with chairs and a hutch.  It was a pricey purchase for a young family just moving into their first house, but those items served us well for 10 years.  This winter we finally replaced the table with a hand-made, Mennonite-crafted table that can expand to seat 12-14 people.  My husband calls it his "Precious."  (He also calls our wisteria plant his "Precious," but that's irrelevant to this story.)

So we got rid of our old table and chairs.  Free on Kijiji (which is the Canadian version of Craiglist.)  They were gone within 45 minutes of listing them.

Once we made the decision to educate our children from the comforts of our home, we realized that we needed to create more learning space in our dining/living room area.  I decided that the hutch needed to go.  It's a nice piece of furniture, free of scratches, complete with working light.  I listed it on Kijiji for $200.  After a week, the only call we had was from someone 1.5 hours away, who had no idea he was calling a house so distant from his own.

So I dropped the price down to $150. 

Our goal was to put a couple desks across the wall of the dining area where the hutch resided.  We started looking for desks (again, on Kijiji.)  I found and picked up a solid wood desk for $40.  It just needed to be refinished.

Still no bite on the hutch.  So I dropped the price to $100.

After another week of no phone calls, we were desperate to get rid of this intruder in our home.  It had served us well, but at this point it was preventing me from setting up for school in the fall.  We made a decision.  The hutch would go to whoever could lug it out, no charge.  Free. 

It's time was up.  It had served us well but had to go.

We called Habitat for Humanity - Restore.  They didn't want it.  "Hutches just don't sell."  You're telling me!

I re-listed it on Kijiji, for free this time.  I got a call within minutes.  And then another one.  Then a third.  I changed the heading to "Sold Pending Pick-Up" and took the phone number off the ad so we wouldn't get more calls.  By the time I checked our emails, we had 11 emails asking if the hutch was still available.

Two days later, the first caller decided she couldn't haul it away with her SUV.  I called the second caller.  No answer.  I called the third caller.  He came and picked it up the next morning.

We were free!!!  It was gone.

Hubby started looking around Kijiji for a second desk that could fit in the spot once occupied by the monster of a hutch.  We needed a desk that was, at most, 20 inches deep, and solid wood so it would be durable through many years of school in that room.

He got to about the fourth page of the listings of desks and found a desk that appeared to be perfect.  And it was free.  But the listing was two days old.  Surely there was a problem with this desk.  We measured the wall and the first desk.  We had a total of about three inches of clearance with the dimensions of this newly found desk.  Hubby called.  The only caveat was that it was heavy (a beast, really) and had been relegated to the basement of this man's house.  We had to haul it out.

Hubby grabbed our 18 year old nephew and hopped in the van to nab this gift from God.

The fact that no one threw their back out lugging the desk out of that house and into ours was also a gift from God.

The desk now sits against the wall of our dining room.  I smile every time I look over there.  The timing of all this was impeccable.  The (non-existent) price differential between the hutch and the desk is just amazing.  I see the hand of God through all of this.

It's just one more scenario that weaves its way into our lives to show us that God is most definitely directing our paths. We serve a great God.

$40 for these two desks.  Definitely a gift from above.