A Penny for Your Thoughts

I pick up pennies.  Silly? Perhaps, they really aren’t worth that much.  They’re not even 100% copper any more.  What do you do with pennies?  I sometimes save them, sometimes give them away, sometimes even use them as they are intended- to make change come out to the specific amount needed to purchase something.  Most of the time however, I simply pick each one up, turn it over in my hand, smile and pocket it.  I find myself reaching for it throughout the day and find grounding in the knowledge of the imprint it carries, “IN GOD WE TRUST.” Not really an original idea, thought , or concept.  I actually think I read something about it long ago and it struck a chord with me.  It is uncanny how many times I find myself in a dark downward spiral due to the latest pummeling life has tossed my way and suddenly cross paths with a lonely abandoned copper coin.

To me it’s a message from heaven above shouting at me silently, “IN GOD WE TRUST!”  (exclamation added out of pure personal preference because I need to be shouted at on occassion).  It serves as a needed glass of ice water across my discouraged face as I am reminded that while I am focused on my worries, anger, or just plain self-centeredness, I can’t possibly be really placing my trust in God almighty.  Trust is absence of worry, it should mean complete confidence in God’s sovereignty and wisdom.  When I focus on the concerns of the moment, I am essentially saying, “I’m not sure I can trust you to help me take care of this, God.”  If we’re completely honest with ourselves, we really aren’t thinking of God at all in these moments, only ourselves and how this current crisis is potentially going to affect us. Trust is hard because it demands that we acknowledge that things don’t necessarily need to go our way and that just maybe God’s plans are bigger and wiser than our own.  It forces us to acknowledge the reality that it really ISN’T all about us.  It’s about how we work with God, fulfill His plans, fulfill His purposes, and how we glorify His name.  Trust reminds us that despite being GOD, he still cares and is involved in the lives of tiny ‘ol us, and He is MORE than capable of taking care of our needs.  Trust means that in the midst of bills, arguments, betrayals, sickness, loneliness, pain, and even death- God has us in his hand just like the penny I hold in mine.

So that penny doesn’t simply represent one cent to me.  It serves as a reminder from God to me  that  “You’re not in this alone, ”  it is a reminder that  “God cares,”  and a reminder that “God is with us. That copper colored message, “In God We Trust,”  reminds me to do exactly that- stop trusting in myself and my plans, and start trusting in the all power, omniscient, loving God that created me and everyone and everything around me to fulfill his ultimate plans and purposes.  So you see, in God’s plans, even pennies have purpose.