Pennies

I read a book (shocking, I know) about a year and a half ago. Don't even remember the name of it anymore, but there was always a part that stuck out in my mind.

It spoke about individuals who have chosen an object that represents the remembrance of God in their lives. For instance, one of the women chose butterflies. Every time she saw a butterfly cross her path, it was a reminder of God's loving presence in her life. There was even a story of a snow storm and the worry that comes along with bad weather and travel in those conditions when the woman saw a butterfly in the middle of the storm which helped to calm her nerves and give her the peace of God.

I remember thinking that that was a great idea. The book encouraged the reader to consider finding their own personal item that would help them remember God's continual work in our lives.

It took me months to figure something out. It's quite a bit more difficult than one might imagine. You want it to be an item that you don't normally see everyday but something that you might come across anywhere that you are. I thought about everything until I settled on pennies.

My dad has always been the guy to pick up pennies no matter where they are. Most people skip over them or intentionally throw them out because they have so little value. I learned that even a few pennies add up to a nickle and a couple nickles become a dime. I hardly ever pass up pennies when I see them on the ground and that made for a perfect object to choose to remind me of God's presence in my life. I didn't find them every day, but they hold a certain amount of value despite being so little.

The point of telling you all of that is to tell you this. Almost a year ago, I was in Phoenix at the state cyclocross champioship race. The day before was a wildly muddy race that really messed up my bike. I was stressed the morning of the championship race because my bike wasn't working perfectly and looked terrible from the mud the other day. I didn't have the cash on me to pay the race fee and had to run down the street to the convenience store to the ATM. I was running late. My water bottles weren't full. One thing after another, as insignificant as they may have been added up to being quite stressful. As I was debating even riding that day, riding to the registration table, I passed a penny on the ground. I stopped, turned around and picked it up. It was a wheat back penny.

Wheat back pennies were produced between 1909 and 1956. They are seldom found in circulation anymore because they are worth at least a few cents more than their face value. Collectors tend to scoop them out of circulation whenever they pop up. It was a find that has more significance than a normal penny laying on the ground. It reinforced that God really had the wheel. That despite my stress, it didn't matter in the scheme of things.

This morning I was out riding my bike, as I have done quite a bit since moving to Columbia 5 weeks ago, and I passed a penny on the ground. The last week has been stressful. I have been worried about a lot of things that have all just added up over the last few days on top of overcoming a cold that hit me hard this past weekend. Despite plenty of prayer to help calm my nerves and give me reassurance that everything will be fine, sometimes stress overwhelms.

A lot of times I pass up pennies that I see while riding my bike (there are more than you might think laying on the roads) because it is too dangerous to stop and pick up a penny or I am in a hurry to get where I need to go. I stopped this morning and turned around. When I got back to the penny and started to bend over I could see the backside was different than normal. Another wheat back.

Sometimes God has to speak a little more loudly when we begin to tune him out with all the stresses that clog our hearing. That penny, despite being so meaningless and having so little value, can mean so much to the person who finds it.

The rest of my ride was spent in prayer. Thankful and reassured that everything is going to be ok.