New Developments

For most of our marriage, we lived on Boone Lake in a rural area several miles from the nearest store of any kind.  What we lacked in convenience, however,  was made up for in scenic beauty. When we moved to Knoxville three years ago, we had to make a quick decision on housing.  God provided a house for our family that had a perfect size and layout.  And it was so convenient it was ridiculous.

                                           
 
Our house is at the top right corner of all that green patch in the middle.  The big road you see is I-40 (so any of my friends travelling in this part of the country - trust me when I tell you I live right on the way). Knoxville's main mall and tons of shopping are a quick walk.  But the big bonus to this property was all that green stuff in our backyard.  It meant that even though the corner we live on is very busy - the local school bus and the Knoxville Area Transit (KAT) both literally stop in our front yard, and the fire station and state police headquarters are one block away - the view out the back looks like this:

It's an oasis of green that is so calming to look at.  Also, those trees to the left provide a nice barrier between us and the elementary school that you would otherwise see from our house.

Unfortunately, this property has been for sale ever since we moved here.  And this past spring, our worst fears were realized when a guy bought the property and the city approved a development of 14 houses.  The West Hills Neighborhood Association fought it as much as they could, but in the end there was nothing they could do.

Construction was supposed to start in April.  I was really bummed.  Not really because our property value was going to go down but because my great, peaceful view was going to be gone.  And in the meantime there would be all the NOISE of construction.  I asked the Lord to help me change my attitude.  After all, people are more important than grass.  The people moving into these houses could be people we could minister to, people I could get to know, friends who would enrich our lives.  But I also prayed that, if possible, this developer would get another opportunity and would just drop this idea.

This spring things have been very quiet over in the field.  Occasionally I would see a truck over there and fear that everything was about to start up.  I kept praying.  Well, I am happy to report that this week we found out some great news!  The developer decided to sell this property to two sisters who are going to be building houses way up in the top of the property (they want to look out at the field, too!). They will be keeping all the trees and all of the lush grass.  I don't know, maybe they'll make their own golf course, but at any rate our view should be safe for years to come!  I celebrated by gathering a bouquet of wildflowers over there today.  God is good!