We may lose many things—possessions, jobs, businesses—but we don't really lose everything.

Recently, my husband and I came to the difficult decision to relocate our family from Colorado to Michigan. We decided to sell some of our belongings: a big heavy couch, a bed, desk, chairs, a second patio set, clothes, unused kitchen items, and stuff in our basement. In a moment of stress and some fear of the unknown, we even decided to give away our dog. A lovely woman came up to me shortly after hearing about the dog and said, "I am so sorry—my daughter just lost everything too."

"Lost everything?" I really had not thought about it that way. Was that how it looked? Was that what was happening? Were we indeed losing everything?

Loss occurs

When my husband and I moved to Colorado 11 years earlier, we had no children. Neither of us were WELS members nor attended church regularly, but we were Christians. I believed Jesus was my Savior and believed he had a hand in the direction of my life. I even gave him credit for picking our house so that we would be living close to the WELS church we eventually called our home. We were blessed with our first child only about a year after we moved into our new home. After eight years of trying for another baby and suffering several losses, we were blessed with our second child. During much of this time, our finances first grew but then slowly declined.

Over the course of three to four years, our business closed, and I was laid off. We were unable to keep up with the car payments, so it was repossessed. We could not keep up with the debts left by the business, so we filed for bankruptcy. We had to sell our paid-off truck. Our home was in foreclosure with the sale date looming in the near future.

I will admit that I kept up my spirits by not sharing everything about our situation. Some people knew—things were becoming obvious, and bankruptcies and foreclosures are public records. However, I realized shortly after hearing that comment, that maybe we had not fully realized our situation and were indeed "losing everything."

God provides

But were we really? After some thought and pondering—perhaps even a little overanalyzing—the Holy Spirit led me to Bible readings that reminded me that God owns everything. He owned our car, the truck, the house, the couch, chairs—even the dog. He gave me these things to have and enjoy while I was in Colorado but not forever. "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away" (Job 1:21). We so often utter this passage but do not necessarily take it to heart. It sure seemed like this was what was happening. I continued my Bible readings to encourage me and find comfort, and I was also reminded that my plans may not be his plans—and most definitely, his plans are for a future, not for calamity. As hard as this was, God was in control, is in control, and will be in control.

Although the downhill slide of our finances was not over, we were seeing God's control in many ways. Knowing that we could not save or keep our house, we wondered where we would go. Then one Saturday, my cousin called. My uncle had a house that he needed someone to live in. All we had to do was take care of it and pay the insurance and taxes. Otherwise it was rent-free. But it was in Michigan.

My immediate thought was No way. We had moved away from Michigan. Why would we ever go back? But I kindly said thank you and promised to give it some thought.