Ask anyone who lives in New York City and they’ll tell you that looking for an apartment in the city is pretty much a nightmare. Right up there with riding a crowded subway car without air-conditioning in the middle of July.
My sisters and I are currently looking for a new place. The whole search is really starting to get to me. First, there are the online apartment listings with headlines that promise things like, “NO FEE! BUT RENT WILL INCREASE MONTHLY, SOMETIMES HOURLY!!! OPTIONAL SKYLIGHT. GOOD FOR DIPLOMATS.”
Then there are the realtors who always, always forget the keys. And, of course, the apartments themselves. So far, we’ve seen two places with extra doors that seemed to lead nowhere. Another gem came with a free TV…but also, very likely, free vermin.
There was one place we sorta liked. But it had no air conditioning, no laundry in the building, no garbage chute and a bedroom that basically opened up into the refrigerator. It was also six flights up. By the time my sister and I made it up there, we were wheezing and ready to move to New Jersey.
So, you can see why I’m freaking out big time. At night, I’m plagued by questions. Where will we go if we can’t find a place? Can we survive without an elevator? Is a bathroom in the kitchen really so bad? Did at least one of those spare doors lead to Narnia?
Well, yesterday morning, I couldn’t take it anymore. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my journal and plopped down on the couch. I should’ve been getting ready for work, but I seriously needed to talk to God.
“Dear God…” I wrote. And then I let it all out. Every little thing that was bothering me, not just the apartment hunt.
I was on page four of unloading when something kinda funny happened. I’m not an expert on the Bible by any means–I’ve never been especially good at memorizing Scripture. But part of a verse came over me in my moment of spazzing. Only it didn’t feel like it was coming from me. It was like God himself was talking to me. Think of the lilies of the field…
I’m sure you know the verse from Matthew, chapter 6:
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
Now, I know for sure that I’m not the first person to experience this sensation. I’ve read countless stories in Mysterious Ways magazine about people facing trials who, out of nowhere, are comforted by just the right verse from the Bible. But it’s never really happened to me before.
It’s pretty powerful, isn’t it? The creator of the universe–he’s talking directly to us! About something as inconsequential as an apartment search. What’s more, he’s been doing this since the beginning of time. His word is a living, breathing source of comfort. What a miracle.
I wrote down my thoughts about the lilies of the field in my journal. My sister Priscilla plopped down next to me on the couch. I confessed how stressed I’d been feeling.
“You know, we always find an apartment in the end,” she said.
She was right. In all the years we’ve lived in the city, God has always come through with an apartment. Sometimes at the last minute, just when it seems like a dwelling full of random, useless doors is inevitable.
He’s always faithful. Just think of the lilies of the field.
Has God ever comforted you with a Bible verse at just the right time? Share your story below!
