change 325/366

Friday when I was weedeating I found a beat up penny in the driveway. It wasn't from my pocket, so I hope it came from the mailman, the Fed-Ex driver or UPS man, otherwise there was someone in my driveway that had no business being there.

Saturday while I was walking I found a much shinier penny:

This one is the impetus for this post. It sparked a day full of thoughts about change.

Sometimes we see a change we need to pick up, and we step away from it or ignore it. One example from my life is my need for daily physical exercise. For years I refused to pick it up and stick with it until January 2020 after my annual physical and a talk with my doctor about blood work results.

Some change seems insignificant and not worth the trouble. Even a five minute walk daily would have been a good start.

Sometimes we see change ahead of us and rush toward it. A few years ago I saw a couple of quarters laying ahead of me on the asphalt. My heart picked up speed that was transferred to my feet. I was almost giddy with my unusually big "score" only to discover, after I'd gone to the trouble of stopping, bending over and picking them up that they were actually Gattiland tokens. I was disappointed. I kept the tokens as a reminder of the lesson that day: change is not always what it appears to be. Today that experience took on a new twist as it made me think about how sometimes change isn't what we expected and it's value is not immediately evident.

Sometimes we wonder how we could have missed it the first go around. I did not see that penny in my driveway when I was pushing the lawn mower to get to the front yard, I walked right past or over it, oblivious to its presence. I couldn't see the negative changes in my physical health. They were hidden until the numbers came back headed the wrong way in my blood work. 

Sometimes change takes us by surprise. Good and bad. Significant and inconsequential. 

I have a Campbell's soup can bank where I deposit all the change I find when I walk. When Deborah and her family come home on furlough whatever has accumulated goes to the kids for fun shopping.

Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, they are all in there. Some coins are battered and worn, obviously they've been run over. Some are relatively unscathed. Some I find alone, sometimes I find several together. There have been times I have found change several days in a row, sometimes there are long stretches in between finds.Sometimes I need quarters so I exchange them for dollar bills. 

Obviously none of us is going to get rich from my walking change, but each coin's hidden value is exponentially more than whatever it's monetary stamp is because each one I find seems to come at just the right time to act as a reminder, or a challenge, depending on the day, that "In God We Trust."  

Whether I am looking for it or whether it comes as a surprise, in life, small changes, large changes and everything in between are inevitable. What I choose to do with the change and with Truth determines its value in my life. I want to allow my faith and trust in God to grow by keeping track of the changes He has faithfully seen me through and share those riches with others.

a final thought:

Both pennies, regardless of their appearance or past, have the same value. One cent. Every person, regardless of their appearance or past, is loved by God and has the same intrinsic worth to the One He sent.

 "For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Titus 3:3-7