Lucky House or Unlucky House?

Tuesday 6/11/2013 9:00 AM

December will be the twenty-fifth year anniversary of our moving into our house.  I remember one of the first conversations I had with our neighbor lady.  She said, “That house is unlucky.”  She then said that every couple that had lived in our house previous to us had gotten divorced.  I assured her that Jaci and I would never be divorced and wished her a good day.  She lived in the neighboring house with her husband and daughter who, at the time, was in her upper twenties.  The conversations I had with her always seemed a little awkward and the husband and daughter seldom said more than an abrupt hello.

A couple of years after we had moved in the woman retired from the Sheriff’s Department, where she had served as a dispatcher.  She announced that she had bought a house in Las Vegas and was moving there, without her family.  She moved and would come home every three or four weeks for a long weekend to see her husband and daughter and then would return to Las Vegas.  I thought it was a strange relationship for a husband and wife but it was their choice to live in such a way.  Tragically, her husband died of a heart attack after about a year and a half of living separated from one another and the daughter sold the house and moved to Las Vegas to live with her mother.

The couple that bought the house had a ceremony to ward off evil spirits before they moved in.  They placed small mirrors above outside doorways and had the front door changed because when you entered the house before the change the outer door opened and the first thing you saw was the entry closet door.  Evidently, that was bad feng shui.  We have had an amiable relationship with them over the years but I have always wondered about their marriage.  He is a truck driver and he lives in San Francisco where there seems to be more work.  He comes to visit every couple of months for a long weekend and then returns to San Francisco.  They have weathered some difficult financial problems and I think they recently sold the house to some relatives who are now also living there with the wife.  It seems like an unusual marriage to me.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to our neighbor that our youngest daughter was now married and last week she met Garrison for the first time.  I was watering the lawn a couple of days ago and my neighbor said something to the effect that all of my children were now settled and my job as a parent was done; by which I am assuming she meant they were married and had someone else to care for them.  She then said, “Your house is lucky.”

My thoughts immediately returned to the comment of my previous neighbor who had pronounced my house to be unlucky.  I don’t believe in luck.  Jaci and I made a commitment to each other before God nearly thirty-five years ago.  We have done everything in our power to remain faithful to that commitment and we have attempted to teach that same idea of commitment to our children.  God is his grace has allowed us to fulfill that commitment to each other and to our children.

Our loving family has nothing to do with a lucky house or an unlucky house.  It has everything to do with a faithful, loving God, who has been at work in our lives to mold us into the image of Christ.  I will continue to do what I can to foster those loving relationships and I will trust God to remain faithful to his promise to be my God and the God of my children.