Sunday, February 21, 2010

Sunday Faith Blog.....a penny story...and Z's penny miracle, too

I got this account Friday in an email (I told you my Sunday Faith blogs always write themselves some time during the week...I NEVER have to look up anything, they just COME) and I wanted to share it with you:
THE PENNY

You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good
luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I've ever heard this twist on the story. Gives you something to think about..
Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to spend the weekend at the home of her husband's employer.
My friend, Arlene, was nervous about the weekend. The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her house.
The first day and evening went well, and Arlene was delighted to have this ra
re glimpse into how the very wealthy live. Her husband's employer was quite generous as a host, and took them to the finest restaurants. Arlene knew she would never have the opportunity to indulge in this kind of extravagance again, so was enjoying herself immensely.
As the three of them were about to enter an exclusive restaurant one evening, the boss w
as walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her husband..
He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment.
Arlene wondered if she was supposed to pass him.. There was nothing on the ground except a single darkened penny that someone had dropped, and a few cigarette butts. Still silent, the man reached down and picked up the penny.
He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had found a great treasu
re.
How absurd! What need did this man have for a single penny? Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up?
Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her. Finally, she could stand it no longer. She casually mentioned that her daughter once had a coin collection, and asked if the penny he had found had been of some value.

A smile crept across the man's face as he reached into his pocket for the penny and held it out for her to see. She had seen many pennies before! What was the point of this?

"Look at it," he said.. "Read what it says."
She read the words, " United States of America ."


"No, not that. Read further."

"One cent?"

"No, keep reading."

"In God we Trust?"
"Yes!"
"And?.. . ."

"And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin. Whenever I find a coin, I see that inscription. It is written on every single United States coin, but we never seem to notice it! God drops a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him. Who am I to pass it by? When I see a coin, I pray. I stop to see if my trust IS in God at that moment
. I pick the coin up as a response to God; that I do trust in Him. For a short time, at least, I cherish it as if it were gold. I think it is God's way of starting a conversation with me. Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful!"
When I was out shopping today, I found a penny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up, and realized that I had been worrying and fretting in my mind about things I cannot change. I read the words, "In God We Trust," and had to laugh. "Yes, God, I get the message!"
It seems that I have been finding an inordinate number of pennies in the last few months, but then, pennies are plentiful! And, God is patient.

Z's story....Shortly after Mr. Z died, I was in church sitting in the wooden pew with a friend t
o my right. He'd got there earlier and settled in with his church bulletin, keys and Blackberry to his left, between us. The service proceeded...the 2 of us went to the center aisle for communion, then came back....and a few minutes later, he squeezed past me to go help pass the offering trays. At that moment, I looked to my left and was very surprised to see a penny teetering on the edge of the wooden pew. The front of the pew seat is contoured, where we sit being lower and then it rises a bit toward the edge under our knees....I thought how strange it was that a penny was hanging half on and half off when Joe had just passed me and the penny and I'd been fidgeting during the sermon as I'm want to do, and that penny hadn't fallen through any of that! I also wondered how the heck it had got there and how I hadn't noticed it in the first place because I'd had to walk past it to sit down when I first arrived and when Joe and I came back to our seats after communion! It was just too weird to find it there so precariously hanging on the edge... I picked it up....Of course, it had "In God We Trust" on it....but then I thought I should see what year it was....it was the year of Mr. Z's and my wedding. Of all the pennies in existence, only a few weeks after I lost my Mr. Z, a penny finds itself next to me hanging off the edge of a wooden pew....with that year on it, our year. Pennies from Heaven.... It felt sad. But, it also felt very good. In God we DEFINITELY trust.

"I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me." Proverbs 8:17

Keep trusting, keep seeking, and have a WONDERFUL, BLESSED Sunday.........Love, Z

z

19 comments:

Right Wing Extreme said...

Beautiful Z. Simply beautiful.

Beth said...

Wonderful story, Z!

I had never heard the idea of pennies from heaven from loved ones who have passed on until my friend told me that when her Grandma was sick, that she told her to "send nickels", so after her Grandma died, my friend started finding random nickels around the house.

I do believe that penny you found in church was a message to you from your sweetheart!

Sue said...

Oh, Z, what a wonderful post! It lifted my spirit in a way you cannot imagine...God IS faithful!

Thank you, and God Bless!

Linda said...

These are both beautiful stories. God does answer prayer!

I love your Sunday Faith!

Always On Watch said...

Z,
About your personal story...God has His ways. When we most need Him, "something" shows up.

Faith said...

I love how God talks to us in little things like that, to reassure us He is there and He is in charge and we can rest all our sufferings in Him. Thanks for that story.

Pedaling said...

z- i call your penny experience
"tender mercies" from the Lord.
wonderful!
you are being watched over, there is no doubt in my mind!
Happy Sabbath!

Anonymous said...

Z, this is lovely, and I believe these things are not coincidence, they are meant to happen, and have true meaning.

If we pay attention, and don't assume coincidence, we will find there are messages to us rather often in any number of ways.

We just have to be tuned into this frame of mind, and welcome them.

Thanks Z for reminding us there are more things in heaven and earth
than we can explain, but we can accept them and be grateful.

Pris

WomanHonorThyself said...

lovely hun..God bless u and the beautiful memories u will always cherish Z!

Z said...

thanks, everybody....I really appreciate your comments.
It was just SO odd that that penny teetered there for what must have been quite some time and nobody knocked it over, I mean it was really teetering! Out of nowhere. I asked Joe if he had seen it and he hadn't and he'd been there at least 10 minutes before I had.

Yes, I do believe in things like this, messages, and it felt really good.

Some day, I'll tell you an even more amazing thing that happened after Mr. Z passed away...it also happened in a church, but not ours. :-)

GM Roper said...

What a wonderful find... shine it up, frame it and hang that penny on the wall for it surely is a penny from Heaven.

FairWitness said...

Z, the grieving process is filled with many such poignant moments and deep, meaningful incidents that cause you to reflect on it all. Grieving the loss of one's mate, like you're experiencing now with your beloved Mr. Z, is journey. At the end, you will find peace, you will be forever changed and eternally grateful for having had that kind of love and connection in your life. The love lives on forever.

Z, some married people, who have been together for several decades, never do get to where you and Mr. Z got in your years of wedded bliss. It's a remarkable and extraordinary love story. Thank you for sharing it with us all.

Law and Order Teacher said...

Z,
That's a great story. You can only think that Mr.Z was trying to tell you that everything will be OK. God is mysterious, but we do get it sometimes, eh?

elmers brother said...

He will never leave us nor forsake us.

Anonymous said...

I love your penny story, Z.

Thank you for sharing it with us!!

Bloviating Zeppelin said...

I would frame that penny.

BZ

Anonymous said...

Dear Z, beautiful!! I'm doing "Catch up" as I haven't read the blog in a few days. Totally loved this! Thank you!

Talking Penny said...

That's a great story that shows the power of God. I learned about the value of even a single penny from my great grandmother.
It all started many years ago when I was a little kid. I had the reputation of being a crybaby. If my great grandmother’s cat looked at me the wrong way or if the sun wasn’t shining quite right, they say I would be crying my eyes out. One day I was crying about this or that in her kitchen when she suddenly asked me if I had seen her special talking penny. I just continued to cry when she told me she found it in her pocket. She said her talking penny could tell me how to stop crying so much. She put it down on the kitchen table in front of me. She said all I had to do was hold it up to my ear, “…making sure that the man’s mouth (Lincoln) was pointed at my ear and he would tell me how to stop crying.” I picked it up and did as she told me, still crying and after a few seconds told her that I couldn’t hear him say anything.
“Well of course not boy,” she said, “not with all that racket you’re making. You have to listen because he’s little and talks real quiet like a whisper.” I did as she said, and put the penny further into my ear but after a few seconds or so told her I still couldn’t hear anything. “
“I already told you. You have to be real quiet to hear that little man. I can hear your whimpering all the way over here,” she said. I quieted down and listened real hard but still didn’t hear him say anything and I told her so.
“He must have told you something,” she said, cause you’re not crying anymore…”
Over the years I had a few sessions with her talking penny. I noticed that over time her penny changed. Sometimes it was shiny new and at other times brown with the writing on it barely readable. I didn’t really get it until I was much older. One day my younger brother Phillip came running into her house crying because he had skinned his knee. She looked at his injury and then brightly asked him if he had seen her talking penny.

Air Jordan said...

Air Jordan