The Knosee
I interviewed Christina many years ago for this story. I had asked her if she'd experienced a Knosee in her life and what was it. What follows is a shortened version of what she shared. She used the term "rock of remembrance," hence the title, as how she views the way God answered their prayers and His great faithfulness to their family.
A rock, or stone of remembrance, is referenced many times in the Bible. A description on Biblehub reads: "Stones of Remembrance refer to physical stones or stone monuments set up to commemorate significant acts of divine intervention, covenantal milestones, or moments of worship. They appear throughout Scripture as visible testimonies of faith, meant to remind future generations of pivotal encounters with God. Such stones serve as memorials, teaching tools, and markers of identity for the people involved."
The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it.
Genesis 28:18
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
1 Samuel 7:12
Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exodus 24:4
When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua,
“Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”
Joshua 4:1-7
In early October 2005, Darren and Christina came home from vacation to surprise a 30-day notice to move out of their home before Thanksgiving. The owners had decided to sell the house and were wasting no time putting it on the hot housing market in the Bay Area.
Darren and Christina loved the house and the nearby schools for their fast-growing two-year-old. They made a fair offer, even throwing in a broker that could save everyone money. The home owners rejected it because they thought they could get more.
The housing and rental market was crazy with high rents and non-existing availability. They began a frantic housing search as the clock ticked, staying in steadfast prayer the whole time asking God for guidance and to bring them something.
They were led to look at buying a house, even though they felt unready, but everything they saw was either run down, in an unideal neighborhood, or far outside their price range. They really didn’t want to move outside their current area due to their son’s school and Darren’s proximity to work. What were they to do?
One day in the midst of all this, Christina was driving with some good friends when one of them posed the question: Where would you like to live? Christina’s immediate answer was, “we can’t afford to live where I want to live.”
Her friend pressed on. “If money was no issue and timeframe was no issue, where would you want to be?” she asked.
This time Christina answered with the name of two towns, but again added, “but there’s no way we could afford that.” Then her friend offered up sage advice:
“Why don’t you just pray about that and ask for what you want? Why don’t you talk to God about it?”
Christina thought, “Yeah, why don’t I? Of course I was praying for a place to live but I was not praying for what I wanted. I was in a stressful situation; I was just praying for a place to live. I wasn’t dreaming or had a big vision. Sometimes when in that mode, like with a short time frame, that fear or panic blinds you from dreaming in a moment like that. But, that prompt sparked this little bit of extra faith in me where I thought, why not just ask for what I want? So I started praying for a place where I wanted to live, which was Menlo Park.”
Cut to a short time later. It’s Halloween night and after handing out candy to the neighborhood kids, Darren told Christina he was going to check listings again to see if anything had popped up, and there it was.
A listing they hadn’t seen before had just dropped their asking price $150,000, right at the top of their range. Darren immediately picked up the phone and called the realtor at 10:30pm, who answered the call.
Turns out the owner was highly motivated to sell quickly. He was trying to move to another place to get his high school children into a different school system. They arranged to see the house the next day, loved it, and were in contract by the end of the week and moved mid-November.
They were grateful and felt God had really taken care of them bringing them to this new home for their family. Darren started a new career around that time running construction management for a residential home development company that offered a healthy upward financial trajectory.
And things were good, for a while, but then a housing crisis hit and stymied Darren’s salary, which put them back under financial stress. Compounding the situation was a desire to grow their family, which would require more room than their two bedroom, one bath home. Christina relayed they felt stuck and like they were barely making it.
“I had palpable anxiety during this time. I grew up really poor and the finance thing is a sensitive area and a personal trigger for anxiety, worry and distrust. I remember being mad at God for us having to struggle so much and doubting, asking: ‘Why did you bring us here? I never wanted to own a house just to own a house. You know I never wanted to be house poor. We prayed that it would happen only if this was really where you wanted us to be and the best thing for our family. Why are we in this position?’ I felt that way for quite some time.”
Fast forward a couple years and the real estate and construction market started to pick back up. Darren’s salary had a slight increase but not enough to ease their worries. They were pursuing private adoption to add to their family but knew if that were to come through they’d eventually need a larger home and adoption can be an expensive process.
They couldn’t swing both and fostering wasn’t an option with the current number of bedrooms. So, they started praying very specifically for God to show them – either bring us the child or show us what to do with the house.
“I have lots of scriptures that helped me in those times. I hold on to God’s word. It’s the only thing that anchors me like the Bible does. It’s an anchor for my soul. It helps me to keep holding on, saying to God, you promised this; This is what you say in your word, you answered this prayer specifically. When I know God has answered a prayer specifically it leaves less room for doubt.”
Around this time Darren’s boss had taken to saying “I want to help you build a house.” Darren and Christina were mystified what he meant by that. It sounded nice in theory but lot prices were out of their range and they didn’t see a way to afford that undertaking.
Then Darren had a shift in perspective and told his boss they couldn’t afford to buy and build but they could potentially add on to their current house or tear it down and rebuild.
His boss was encouraging, telling Darren it would be a good learning opportunity and that it would help him because building your own home versus overseeing projects brings a wealth of insights Darren could bring back to the job.
Then Darren’s boss offered him a construction loan for the least amount of interest the company was able and plans quickly moved forward to tear down the house and rebuild. It was an intense seven-month build-out but Darren was given flexibility with his day-job to juggle both. The exercise did help him at work and contributed to promotions that were to follow.
Christina said, “When the downturn happened in the building industry, 90% of people in the bay area closed operations and a lot of people lost their jobs. Darren was one of the few that didn’t. We had to just hold tight during that time and, I will say that even though I didn’t trust God perfectly through it, I can look back and say, ‘Wow you had us all along’. God knew what he was doing even though I didn’t know, but He did.
I can’t doubt when I see God move so specifically. I can be OK being unsure where we’re going knowing God brought us here. Sometimes we have an idea of the way things will go and at the same time, back then, there’s no way I could ever have foreseen what God was ultimately doing. Never in a million years would I have imagined we'd end up with this beautiful house that’s also increased in value. It was beyond my imagination, what I could have come up with. It’s like what the scriptures say, ‘You give us beyond that’.
We’re foolish and humbled when looking back on doubting God when He had this amazing plan. Now our son walks the halls of a home his father built. Even today we couldn’t afford to live in the house we live in now if it didn’t happen the way it did. It’s a rock of remembrance for me. God was faithful.”
But as with all long-game God stories, this deliverance didn’t start just with that 30-day notice. Part of the path can be traced back to when Darren was in college, a good 20 years earlier, and the important role a friend and classmate would play in helping change Darren’s trajectory.
Prior to joining the construction company in the mid-aughts, Darren had been working in jobs where he felt unhappy and unfulfilled. They had taken him away from a deep love of design and his degree in architecture from Berkeley. It impacted not only Darren, but his family, because his unhappiness and frustration followed him home. Christina encouraged him to start talking to God about it so he did, praying for direction on what to do.
Darren began looking around for something to spark his interest and he ran across a program at Stanford, a one-year masters in construction management. As he investigated he discovered a good friend from church, who he went to architecture school with in college, had also taken this program and got the same degree Darren was looking at.
Although the deadline had passed to apply, the friend volunteered to introduce Darren to a few of the professors. He arranged a lunch and the professors found favor in Darren and urged him to get the requirements in ASAP for consideration. Part of which, was having only two weeks to prepare for the GRE – which he aced. Not only was Darren accepted, they gave him a small scholarship which helped ease some financial burden.
This degree is what enabled Darren to move back into a space his heart desired and that he excels at. It’s what led him to the construction management job and company he’s at and the boss who offered the loan and encouragement to build his own home.
Rock of remembrance indeed.
Praise be to God for his faithfulness and the ways he provided for this family. It didn't happen overnight but it exceeded what they could have imagined possible and is still providing for them to this day.
