When “no” becomes “yes”

Every January I switch out my desktop calendar, looking back through the previous year to transfer birth dates and other important information.

This year, instead of a simple transfer of dates, the endeavor became a time of praise and awe and thanksgiving.

For example, last January I sent a proposal for a short pioneer-Christmas story, hoping it would be selected for an anthology by a major publisher. It was not selected. However, that story became the first in a three-book series picked up by another major publisher. All three books release this year, the first one in February—all because the first publisher said “no.”

In September, my husband and I moved into our long-awaited home, and we have been surprised by all the little things here that fit our needs so perfectly. Yet as I looked back through the first half of my 2013 calendar, I saw note after note of appointments with realtors to see a house I thought at the time was the perfect one for us. It became a discouraging drudgery, and I nearly gave up hope. So many “no’s.”

“God has something for us,” my husband said one day.

And He did. Without all those other “no’s” we would not have pressed on to find the home we now enjoy.

It’s so disappointing to hear “no,” but God can turn it into a wonderful “yes.”

Are there any “no’s” in your life that have prepared you for “yes”? Are you still waiting? Or have you received the fabulous “yes”? I’d love to hear about them.