Getting fleeced

My husband and I were recently discussing buying a home, and how we'd know which one was the one we should make an offer on. We discussed size, various price points, if the owners lowered the price by $___, etc.

"So is price our fleece?" I asked.

"Our what?" was TJ's response.

My Utah-raised husband didn't know about the fleece. "You know, 'putting out the fleece,'" I said. "Like Gideon. In the Bible. Who put out a fleece to see what God wanted him to do."

TJ just gave me blank looks.

I couldn't believe it. How could you not know about The Fleece? I told my mom, and she too was shocked. "He's missed out on a whole part of life!" she said.


So I grabbed the Bible, found Gideon (he lives in Judges), and read to TJ about the fleece. Gideon puts it on the ground and says, "OK, God, if this is what you want me to do, then tomorrow the ground will be wet but my fleece will be dry." And God says, "OK." and does it. And the next day, cause apparently he's a bit thick, Gideon does it again, only backward, and God says "OK" and the ground is dry and the fleece is wet, just like Gideon asked.

It's our classic cry — Give me a sign, Lord!

Where some faiths bawk at this behavior — "Thou shalt not test the Lord thy God" — I sometimes think God likes to speak to us in this way. These days, we're sort of limited. Seldom does the Angel of the Lord come down and give us a message (Holy crap — Gideon got one and he STILL tested him. Go figure!). We seek God in more subtle ways — through the Bible, through prayer. Through the Holy Spirit — which sometimes feels a whole lot like "trust your instincts."

Figuring out what God is saying can be hard. Laying out a "fleece" is easy. The trick is knowing you are still relying on GOD and not some "sign" to make a decision. It's a fine line.

But TJ and I prayed. We talked it out. We read about Gideon. And we decided to ask for a fleece. Buying a house is a big decision. We didn't want to waste energy on something that wasn't God's will. We already had been praying and twisting those door knobs and we felt like the door was open. We just wanted God to show us if we were supposed to go through this door.

So we prayed, "Dear God — If you want us to buy this house, let this family drop the price to within our range."

We had a deadline — If nothing had changed by July 15, we would make the offer we felt like we could afford — nearly $10,000 less than their asking price. And then we would wait.

The next morning I checked my email and had a note from my agent — they had dropped the price by $5,000. We wrote our offer within hours. The next day, it was accepted.

And now we wait — for the bank to do their part, for the appraiser to do his, for the owners to make a few minor fixes. Waiting makes me crazy. Waiting 37 days until our scheduled closing is going to be a nightmare for me, especially with the fear that this could all fall apart at any minute.

But God answered our prayer. The ground was wet, but our fleece was dry. We can stand in confidence knowing that we are doing what God wants us to do. And what more can you really ask for?