I’ve known Melody for many years. But at a singles event at our church, I heard her tell a part of her story I had never heard. She spoke on unmet desires. Her story was so good that I wanted others who have struggled with unmet desires to hear it. I asked if I could interview her and put it on my blog. We met up at “Holler & Dash” on Howell Mill, Atlanta and I recorded it.
Back in 2014 she had been in a dark period for several years. She had expressed her desires to God and it felt like he was actively holding back.
Whatever she did, it seemed he was saying “I’m not giving it to you.”
And where we begin our story Melody had decided to “Give up God for lent.” She felt like if something good didn’t come through for her soon, she may never pick God back up. She felt so dead inside.
One of her desires was finding a new home.
She felt strongly she wanted a single-level home from the 1920’s-30’s. But it was so hard to find one that this seemed like another one of the areas that God was intentionally keeping from her.
Then one day her realtor sent her pictures of a house that totally didn’t fit what she had been looking for. It was a 50’s style, multi-level home.
But it looked beautiful, especially with all the dogwoods and azaleas blooming in the front yard. And it had big windows that looked out from the living room into this beautiful yard. Surprisingly it was perfect. It was a case where she didn’t know what she really wanted until she saw it.
It was winter when she actually saw the house and even though the yard was barren, she trusted in the spring all those beautiful plants would bloom, just like in the picture that made her fall in love with it.
She bought the house.
But the yard stayed barren, even well past when they should have bloomed. And every day her drive to work took her by all these yards blooming with beautiful dogwood trees. Everything in the city seemed to be blooming except for her yard. Again it felt like God was intentionally holding back something she dearly wanted.
She remembers standing in her living room looking at her neighbor’s tulip trees and seeing her completely barren ones.
She thought, “I bought a ‘fiction.’ It’s never going to bloom.
But one day after her walk to her mailbox, she turned back and looked at her neighbor’s beautiful house, fully in bloom. And then she looked at her own, three barren trees looking back at her. They were planted in the same soil. It was the same temperature. They were at the same elevation and climate. It made no sense why hers would not bloom and his would.
Then, standing there, she felt like God said, “Stop looking at your neighbor’s yard. Yours will bloom in its own season.”
When she went inside she thought to herself. “If these things don’t bloom, I’m going to have a serious crisis of faith.” It means either God is a liar, or I am hearing voices.
It was almost Easter but Melody’s lent had been very, very long.
Three days later she started seeing blooms on everything in her yard. White and pink azaleas. The tulip trees. Her dogwoods.
In fact more plants than were in the picture started popping up. Hostas started popping up. Tulips. Lilies she had no idea were there sprouted out of the ground. The beauty of it was even more than she imagined.
She felt like God was saying, do not look at your neighbor’s yard because I am working things deep in your ground that you cannot see.
And it still happens at her house in this pattern, every year. Around Easter, her yard explodes with color and beauty. It reminds her that God is really at work, even when it seems like he is intentionally holding back. And just like her house that didn’t look anything like what she thought she wanted, maybe what God has for us is better than we imagine it to be. And we will not know it, and how good it is, until we see it.
Thank you, Melody for your story, that I think is better-than-fiction. Feel free to reach out to her if you’d like to connect.
Raw Spoon
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