Because Kyle prayed

I just have to share this story because it is great on so many levels! We have lived in our neighborhood for about 5 years now. A family lived right across the street from us that had a little boy a bit older than my son Kyle and a daughter a year older than Sarah. For the last 5 years they have been fast friends! Summers were spent running from one house to another, playing in the sprinklers in the front yard or the jacuzzi in the back. Many days it was the best motivator for my kids to finish up their chores and homework before they could go play with their friends. Jack and Daniella are really sweet kids and it was so nice to have friends the same age across the street! Don’t get me wrong, they had the usual tiffs that any kids do but bounced back quickly and were off to be best friends again in no time.

Well a few months ago their mom lost her job. She decided to take a new job in California and they moved rather quickly. Needless to say my kids were really sad to see their friends go. Kyle especially missed Jack. My son is extremely tender hearted. He cried every day for two weeks when we got home from school. I really wanted to help him process how hard it was for him to have a friend move away. One night before bedtime he was really very sad. We were talking about all the fun things we had done with Jack and he was telling me he was afraid a family would move in and there would not be any kids to play with. I told him we should pray about it. That we should ask God to bring a family with lots of kids. And so we did. We prayed every time Kyle felt sad. A great thing happened. He started to let go of his sadness and started to have hope. Instead of crying when we saw the house across the street he would pray on his own. My sweet, crazy, 6 year old little warrior prayed for days.

The owner of the house, Jack and Danni’s grandfather, has been working on the house for a few weeks now. We are used to seeing his car there and him in and out of the house. Yesterday I was pulling into the driveway after dropping my kids off at school. There were 2 different cars and a group of people standing outside talking. Being me, (those of you who know me well know exactly what I mean!)  I walked over to check things out and say hello. Sure enough, they were the new family moving in! I met the mom and she told me about her plans to move in over the next 2 weeks. Then she told me about her kids. FIVE of them. FIVE! Four boys and one girl. I think she said they range in ages from 3 to 11.  I just laughed when she told me about her kids. I shared this story with her and we laughed over how fun it will be to to have new friends on the block. But wait …it gets even better. They are Jack and Danni’s cousins. So not only do we have an all new set of friends in our neighborhood, we get a way to keep in touch with old friends as well. How cool is that! I was so excited to tell Kyle when he got home from school. He was beyond excited and is counting down the days until they move in.

Now nothing is guaranteed that they will all be best of friends. But the cool thing is that Kyle felt like his prayers did not go unheard. He prayed for “new kids” to move across the street. He is getting that and so much more! It’s like getting an ice cream sundae with whipped cream and sprinkles when all you were expecting was a plain scoop of vanilla.  Sarah even laughed and said, ” I wonder what would have happened if I had prayed with him? A house with 10 kids? 5 girls and 5 boys? ” She got to see Kyle’s faith in action and it had an effect on her as well.

I once heard someone say that a coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous. I have this vision in my head of God watching all of this from up high. Seeing Kyle sad and knowing what was to come, rubbing his hands together, giddy for the gift he was giving my son.  Some of you reading this may think, big deal, new kids moving in. How is that a “miracle”? Well the miracle is seeing my kids faith in action, seeing God’s faithfulness and goodness. Yup, life is good indeed.