Our house was a manger

Oh where to begin on this one. Christmas Eve was one to not soon be forgotten. We left for Reno on the morning of the 24th and we left our dogs, at home, in Elko and Tom and Amanda were taking care of them for us, they were checking on the dogs daily and aside from that our house was vacant...

So midnight on Christmas Eve, Shawn and I are talking and doing some reading when my cell phone rings, the caller id on my cell shows it to be our home phone number. Instant panic sets in, my dogs can't use the phone and knowing Tom and Amanda they were in bed. I answered the phone and no one was there, called the house back and it was busy. Called Tom and Amanda and as we begin to put the pieces together, they also had received a call from our home phone about an hour earlier, but didn't recognize the number.

Tom called our house from his cell while I was on the phone with his wife, and SOME WOMAN ANSWERED MY PHONE!!!! Her name was Rebecca, she told Tom that she had broken a window to get in, she'd pay for it and the dogs were in their kennels. Amanda and I had to hang up so she could call 911. I DON'T KNOW REBECCA and she shouldn't be in my house. The story unfolded from there and after much confusion, heartache, disbelief, and a few more crazy phone calls, the story goes...

Rebecca and her husband(?) were housesitting up the street from us and he decided that he would spend Christmas Eve beating her up. He choked her and she was able to escape through a bedroom window with her 5 month old baby. She got into the truck, began to drive away and he caused the truck to drive off the road. He ran back to the house they were sitting and she ran towards ours. Let me tell you that winter in Elko is COLD, midnight has to be worse. We have been getting down to 0' so being outside is no place for anyone, and especially not a baby. She ran to our house and broke a window. She climbed in with her baby and found the phone. Not sure why she didn't call 911 but she called people we knew from our phone book in our phone. She told her story to random people, and once Tom called 911 the police arrived. After much searching and such they were able to apprehend him. He had 3 priors on domestic violence and an outstanding warrant. He will be in prison for a while.

Aside from a broken window our house was fine. I don't always understand how God delivers messages to us and can now see how sometimes we miss the real message, but I will tell you that in order to make positive out of something unnerving like this we read between the lines..., and TRUST.

Our house was her INN on Christmas Eve. There was a fire in the stove, food in the fridge and had she needed just about anything for that baby and looked hard enough she could have found it. God brought her to our house for a reason. She was safe, warm and able to care for herself and her baby. Many people pointed out and it took me a while to see it, but people tend to break in to steal stuff, not for refuge. OUR HOME was a place of refuge, a PLACE OF SAFETY, for a woman and her infant on Christmas Eve. God is amazing, and plans all things for his glory. 2008 was a tough year for our family and God was steadfast, always present, and always bigger than anything that came our way. What a way to end a year we would never want to revisit, by showing us that OUR HOME was safe, secure, warm, and able to bring refuge to someone in need. Thank you Jesus.