Rick and I have lived in several homes in Sonoma County. Our first was in Sebastopol. Rick had come north to start Rivers Aviation Services and was looking for a home, while I stayed in Valencia until our three children finished the school year. There were NO rentals available, not until the very last minute, and it just happened to be between two Christian families. We were spiraling downward toward divorce at the time. Those two families introduced us to the church that became home. We started our Bible study in that home, and it’s still going forty years later (moving from house to house…). God guided us and planted us exactly where we needed to be to meet Him.
Rick’s business grew and we needed to buy land and build. God guided us north to Windsor where we lived next to the 101 Freeway. I used to think of Rahab living in the wall of Jericho right near the city gates. I became so used to the freeway noise, I woke up every night when the noise had died down to a whisper of a car every now and then.
Next move was to Fountaingrove and Rick’s dream home. We went to work fixing up the house and lived there for sixteen years. Rick was diagnosed with Parkinson’s while we lived there, and after a few years, I (and our daughter) felt God nudging us to move. Steps everywhere. No way out of the house without going down steps. No way in without going up. Rick was adamant about staying, but finally gave me a list of what it would take for him to agree to move.
Which brings us to this one-story ranch style home on the opposite side of town in the flood plain. It had everything he wanted, even though it required lots of work. He still didn’t want to move, but he had made an agreement and wouldn’t say no. We sold our home and bought the other in a matter of days in the month of October 2016. One year later, in October, the Tubbs Fire broke out. The Fountaingrove home burned in a matter of minutes. The man who bought the house made it to safety in his pajama bottoms. He said the house was incinerated, his car melting in the garage. The only thing left was the paver driveway and a fountain in the back yard. The entire neighborhood burned, as well as large areas of Santa Rosa. Had we still been living in that house; I would not have been able to get Rick down the stairs and up the driveway to help. We both would have died.
God does guide us in a thousand ways. When we face circumstances that require a decision, it is best to pray for wisdom, wait upon the Lord, and heed the gentle nudge when it comes. His guidance is lifesaving as well life-giving.