Wednesday, July 28, 2010

God likes Craigslist

Yes, you read the title correctly. Actually, I am not sure he approves of all the happenings on Craigslist, but I am completely confident that He uses it for good. Seriously.

I've been familiar with the concept for quite awhile now, but have honestly only used it a handful of times. I've heard all the horror stories of the unsavory incidents related to the site, but I have only ever had good luck. And recent events in my life had led me back to the Craigslist world once again.

My Craigslist adventure begins with a search for dressers for my children. My daughter's dresser, while newer, had just about had it. It was made of particle board and cardboard. Of course, to the untrained eye, it looks like wood, but I knew the truth. And over time, the truth became more and more evident. Eventually, the drawers started falling apart. I tried repairing them many times, but it would only get worse. We had come to the conclusion that my daughter needed a new dresser.

My son needed a dresser as well, and had been using the wardrobe we bought for Rylee when she was an infant. It is white and brown and has a mirror on the door. There are pink flowers and fancy knobs.  He was getting to that age where things like that started to matter, not to mention the fact that his clothes never seemed to stay on the shelves. It was time to get him an actual dresser.

While searching the Craigslist classifieds, I had located a dresser for my daughter. The location was near by and it was just what I was looking for. I coaxed my husband to call the girl listed in the ad because I get anxious about such things. While he was dialing, I made the comment that I thought it would be funny if it was the Katie we knew from church. I knew she was getting ready to move. My husband grinned while he was talking to the woman on the other end of the phone. He said that it was the Katie we knew and handed me the phone. We not only found our daughter a reasonable dresser, it was from someone we knew and trust. And she had another dresser for us too. Two birds with one very lucky stone. I suppose that it was more like God has led us to that ad as apposed to luck. And for that, I am very grateful to him.

In an earlier blog post I had mentioned my husband's misfortune with my grandmother's table. To make a long story short, we needed a new one. Unfortunately, we just can't run to the furniture store every time something breaks, so again we hit up Craigslist. For awhile we had wanted to get an entire dining room set, complete with buffet table and china hutch. We just figured it would have to wait. And again, God seemed to lead us right to not only what we needed, but what I had wanted. We made the trip to Yarmouthport and picked up our "new" table, complete with matching buffet table and china hutch. They matched our existing chairs, which made me happy that I can use my grandmother's chairs for that much longer. The set was from the 50s and looks beautiful in my dining room. I couldn't be happier!

Our most recent experience with Craigslist is one of my favorites. For a very long time now, I had wanted to buy a piano. New, pianos can be very expensive. We are talking thousands of dollars. Even the used pianos on Craigslist seemed out of my price range. Every now and then I would check back to see if anyone had posted something new. I had even found a really nice electric substitute that I was contemplating buying off of a friend. I even prayed about a piano. And yesterday, much to my surprise and delight, I discovered a new ad for a free piano. The piano was just a town over and completely free to anyone willing to come and haul it away. A free piano.  Amazing. It just needs to be cleaned up and touched up in a few places, but it is beautiful. We plan on hiring a piano tuner in the near future, and it seems like a small price to pay for such a wonderful blessing. I owe my best friends the McCabes so much for being willing to help us move the piano.

I have so much to be thankful for. God has showered me with blessings. I am just in awe that he takes so much interest in my life to take the time to give me a piano.  It wasn't even a need. It was a want. And He wanted me to have it. Funny how He can use things like Craigslist to give one of his daughter's a present. Thank you, Abba.

No comments: