Buying a House in Detroit

In 2009, Detroit was a city the world had written off. Factories stood hollow. Entire neighborhoods lay abandoned, with houses selling for a dollar. Financial analysts called it a lost cause. But that year, a young couple named Marcus and Elaine Thompson closed on a three-bedroom brick home on Bagley Street for twelve thousand dollars. Their families thought they were throwing money away.

Marcus remembers the closing. "The title agent looked at us like we were confused," he said. "She asked twice if we understood the neighborhood." They understood perfectly. They saw what was coming before others could — a city that still had bones, still had soul, still had people who refused to leave.

Fifteen years later, that house is worth twenty times what they paid. But more importantly, their block is alive again. Neighbors followed. A coffee shop opened on the corner. Children ride bikes where weeds once grew chest-high.

This is exactly what the Almighty asked Jeremiah to do while Babylon's army surrounded Jerusalem. Buy a field. Sign the deed. Seal it in a clay jar. Everyone watching thought the prophet had lost his mind. The city was falling. But God was making a promise through that purchase: "Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land."

Faith sometimes looks like a terrible investment. But the Most High sees harvests where we see only siege walls.