Article February 2, 2009 Issue

TWO MORTGAGES, ONE PRAYER

BY JULIE WARD

When our daughter was a little girl, she loved the word mansion. As we drove along beautiful suburban streets, she'd ask, "Mommy, is that a mansion?" Her question made me think of Jesus' words: "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2).

I'd already begun to glimpse the power of Jesus' message, concluding that there are many mansions—but never too many or too few. And since then, I've come to cherish the idea that our "real estate" is our blessedness as God's expression (see Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 41).

An experience we had some years ago proved to us how truly blessed we were. In 1983, my husband, Peter, and I bought our first home, a condominium, when the housing market in our city was booming. Then a few years later we signed a legal agreement with an individual who intended to purchase the condo after one year. However, when that year ended, the individual couldn't get financing, and a year later moved away without honoring the obligation. Since we'd felt confident of that sale, we'd already purchased another home more suited to our needs, and were living in it.