YARD SALE memory Part 1

This is YARD SALE season. Last Saturday, while my folks were in town, we got up early and made our way into our neighborhood for "Subdivision Yard Sale" day. That meant I left with "morning face" and a longing for the coffee that was brewing too slowly for my anxious bargain hunting parents. By 8:30, I had purchased a cup of lemonade from my sweet little neighbor who sat in great expectation in his front yard. I chatted with a new neighbor and bought two games from her. I remembered that my mom is a yard saler who doesn't let a single musty box go unsearched. I went home for coffee. Jacob was watching Saturday morning cartoons. By the time I got back, my Jo had decided that she had to make an offer for a Vera Bradley bag she saw hanging on a clothes rack. The hunt was on!
For some, it's a day of humiliation. That was me last year. The agony of waiting awkwardly while strangers (don't even tell me about those hospitality posts!) look with disdain at my REALLY GOOD JUNK. :) They turn it over, talk in hushed whispers, and then do one of two things ... offer me 50 cents, or put it back like it wasn't even yard sale worthy. It's a day of rejection!!!! Am I getting off track? Well, anyway, I made about $100 last year, and I was glad that a few people left with things they would use.

In honor of YARD SALE season, I want to share a very sweet memory. It is the YARD SALE that will forever stand out in my memory, not as a day of rejection or raking in the quarters, but of an act of great love in our final days of preparation before leaving for a foreign mission field in 2001. Let me take a couple of days to open up my YARD SALE files and share this act of love with you....

"And the Rain Descended"

We knew it would be such a help. We had just spent a week packing boxes of things to send, and now we were spending a week preparing for our pre-departure Yard Sale. To top it off, we were leaving early Friday morning, before the yard sale started. A kind friend from our church had done all the advertising and was going to conduct the sale in our absence for Friday and Saturday of Labor Day Week end. By Thursday night, we were hardly packed for the trip, but our house was filled with boxes and stacks of items priced to sell, and little semblance of order remained.

Weather forecasts were not good, but our good samaritan decided to pull herself away from her own family’s move and go on with the sale. The impending rain drew out several other sympathetic helpers. Early Friday morning, the sky looked bleak, but we began to set up for what felt strangely like a funeral. Our children were in bed, where we hoped they would stay until the latest possible moment. Helpers began arriving. A cake and cupcakes showed up for encouragement, and our narrow porch was brimming in an effort to find cover.

It began slowly, and then “the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house,” (Matt. 7:25). Somewhere in the commotion our kids woke up and got dressed, while helpful friends appeared with portable awnings to stake into our yard, now turned into a stream. The hardy friends were undaunted. With clinging wet clothes and soggy sandals, they pressed on. We helped as we could, all the while knowing that we had to leave to begin our 12 hour drive. “This is useless,” I thought, “No one will even come.”


Oh, do come back tomorrow! What happened that day is a testimony of God's love shown through His people ... even through a YARD SALE. :)