Sarah Sundin, @sarahsundin

As I write this, I’m preparing for the moving van to come in two days. When this article posts, we will be living in our new house, Lord willing.

So much of the real estate market has given me reminders of the publishing world. For instance, we put our house on the market in early June. Exactly when the market took a nosedive. So we waited. We’d done everything “right,” but our house didn’t sell. And didn’t sell. And the completely trashed house in our neighborhood did sell.

Sound familiar? We go to conferences, learn the craft, build our platform, finetune our stories, and we wait. And wait. And our friend’s novel, which really isn’t that good, does sell.

The Lord taught me many lessons in my rejection letter years. Many years. Many lessons. When we were waiting for our house to sell, I revisited those lessons. I’m sad to say, I didn’t necessarily apply them well. We did some pouting and whining and despairing and grumbling. All right, a whole lot of grumbling.

I wasn’t proud of my attitude at all. I knew God would act in His timing. I told my friends that. But I also knew God’s timing can take a really long time in our reckoning.

Then God did something odd and wonderful. Our house sold—and to the right family—a nice family with four kids, who were meant to have our house. I thanked God for this.

My husband and I immediately drove from Northern California to Southern California, and our realtor made appointments to see several lovely homes. None in our dream neighborhood, but houses we’d be more than happy with.

Now…back in March before we could list our house, we’d seen a beautiful home online in that dream neighborhood. It sold. Then the same day we were driving down I-5, the dream house popped up again in our feed! Turns out it had fallen out of escrow, and the owner had kept it off the market for a few weeks to paint and do other upgrades—including a big built-in desk perfect for a writer! Our realtor made an appointment, we loved it as much in person as online, and we bought it.

As we were driving home, I had a little talk with God. Why on earth did He do this amazing thing for us when we were acting like toddlers? Shouldn’t He have waited until we’d fully accepted the lesson of waiting and shone in virtuous contentment?

I heard Him say, “I will bless whom I will bless.”

No coincidence that I’d just been reading Deuteronomy. The Israelites had pouted, whined, despaired, and grumbled their way through forty years in the desert. As God is preparing to lead them into the Promised Land, Moses sits them down for a little talk. One of the things Moses tells them struck me hard. “Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people” (Deut. 9:6, ESV).

Why did God give the Israelites the Promised Land? Why did He give me and my husband our dream house? Not because of our righteousness. Only because of His grace.

When I received my first publishing contract, I was overwhelmed and humbled by the gracious gift. Yet some part of me still thought I’d deserved it to some extent. I’d worked hard. I’d practiced the craft. I’d rewritten my novel innumerable times. I’d learned the spiritual lessons from my waiting years.

But I didn’t deserve it any more than I deserved this house. I’m a stubborn and stiff-necked person. I forget the blessings and whine about minor difficulties. I have to keep learning the same lessons over and over.

I’m not published because I’m a better writer than others—indeed, I know countless unpublished writers who write far better than I do. It isn’t because I’ve worked harder—we all work hard. It certainly isn’t because I’m more Christlike.

God will bless whom He will bless. Sometimes the blessing is the publishing contract. Sometimes the blessing is the rejection letter.

All of it is grace. All of it, all of life, is an undeserved gift.

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Until Leaves Fall in Paris

When the Nazis march toward Paris, American ballerina Lucie Girard buys her favorite English-language bookstore to allow the Jewish owners to escape. The Germans make it difficult for her to keep Green Leaf Books afloat. And she must keep the store open if she is to continue aiding the resistance by passing secret messages between the pages of her books.

Widower Paul Aubrey wants nothing more than to return to the States with his little girl, but the US Army convinces him to keep his factory running and obtain military information from his German customers. As the war rages on, Paul offers his own resistance by sabotaging his product and hiding British airmen in his factory. But in order to carry out his mission, he must appear to support the occupation—which does not win him any sympathy when he meets Lucie in the bookstore.

In a world turned upside down, will love or duty prevail?

Sarah Sundin is an ECPA- and CBA-bestselling author of World War II novels, including Until Leaves Fall in Paris. Her novels When Twilight Breaks and The Land Beneath Us were Christy Award finalists, The Sky Above Us won the 2020 Carol Award, and When Tides Turn and Through Waters Deep were named to Booklist’s “101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years.” A mother of three adult children, Sarah lives in California and enjoys speaking for church, community, and writers’ groups. She serves as Co-Director for the West Coast Christian Writers Conference. You can find her at http://www.sarahsundin.com