The Presidential Manse

While at Lancaster Bible College, I have been staying in a guest room in the basement of the college’s Presidential Manse. Built in 1955, it is a house that has had an unusual history, its major claim to fame being that it survived a move of 250 feet to avoid being destroyed by the routing of a state highway through its living room.

Initially, the state condemned the property and paid the owners the value of the house and land, but when those same owners were unable to find any new homes in the area they liked, they bought the house back and had it moved out of harm’s way.

“This process began with the excavation of a new basement,” says a brochure about the manse titled, “A Legacy of Love.” “Then the house was dug out and supported on wheels. Inside, Anna (the owner at the time) simply took mirrors off the walls. No packing or other precautions were required. The actual move took one day, as two bulldozers pulled the house up the ramp from the old foundation, across the field, and centered it over the new basement space – without even one crack in the masonry walls!”

Who would care that much about a house to go to all this trouble to move it when it probably would have cost the same, maybe even less, to build a new one on the new location? Someone must have had a love for this particular house. It’s interesting how this story gives the house value. Ever since I heard the story, I’ve been looking around the house and asking myself what makes it so special. I’ve finally concluded it isn’t anything intrinsic in the house itself – it’s pretty much of an ordinary house, though beautifully remodeled and appointed by the President’s wife – it’s the value the owner placed on it by buying it back and moving it. The owner’s love made it valuable.

How like you and me this is. What is it about us that would make God buy us back and set us on a new foundation? Nothing… except His love. Give yourself a second look in the mirror today. Extra special? Well, no, not really. But God thinks so… and that makes it so.

As you might imagine, I’m thinking about another house that is worth saving because you are making it so by sharing your gifts with us. We aren’t completely out of the woods yet, but when we are, I will look at our house and see something more than just the house it once was – I will see a legacy of love made possible by you. Thank you for all you are doing.