When you see a penny on the ground, what do you do? Do you stop to look closer and see if it’s on heads before picking it up? Do you just walk past thinking “it’s just a penny”?
My husband has a “jingle jar” and though the silver sparkles all over..the main color throughout the jar is dirty copper. Sometimes you might see a shiny newer penny, but even still, they just don’t shine like silver. I know it’s the first thing I try to get rid of when the change fills up my wallet.
I didn’t think too much about pennies until after 2001. Try to stay with me…I’m gonna lose some of you right here. That was the year my grandfather died and suddenly pennies were everywhere.
I would find them alone, I would find them in groups. They would be on the floor. They would be on counter tops. I would find them on the ground. I even found them…when I wasn’t at home…almost like the pennies were following me. Ok, so I’ve discussed this theory with a few people over the years. One of my favorite conversations was with a friend of mine named Cathy. Hopefully she remembers that conversation. It was the first time I think I had voiced this craziness other than to my family. The 
pennies were appearing so much and in such random places that I CHOSE to believe that it was my granddaddy leaving them for me. If you already think I’m crazy at this point then read the next line really quick. Just get it over with…rip it off like a band aid.
I may or may not have heard this could happen from a well known television psychic. But that’s just a small detail in the big picture.
I didn’t do anything with the pennies. I’m sure some of them got spent. I’m sure I dropped a few in my purse only to later forget about them. This went on for several years. I got used to it and would sometimes make a joke about wishing he would leave me something larger than a penny. It somehow brought me comfort. Eventually the pennies stopped “appearing” or I didn’t notice them anymore. Several years later I was talking to my friend Jason and told him my penny story. Come to find out he had his own penny story.
He told me that his dad to this day would see a penny lying on the ground and would pick it up and say a prayer. Each penny represented a person who was lost and he prayed right then for their salvation. So at first I’m just amazed that someone else has an interest in pennies, but then I start thinking about it. This impacted me in such a huge way. Can you; whoever is reading
this right now; think about all the pennies that you have come across just lying on the ground? Now, imagine that each one of those pennies represented someone’s soul that was lost and going to hell. Does it make you think of those pennies differently?
I wrote this poem after I heard about this.
Now after hearing this you are either on one side of the fence or the other.
- This girl is nuts!
- Wow..God can use even a penny!
I’ve always been amazed at how God works. How His intricate plans co
me together. How He can take something as small as a penny to provide comfort. And how that same penny might represent a soul that doesn’t know Him.
In more recent days I have witnessed events in the lives of people that make me ask.. “how do they make it without Him?” I can’t imagine going through this life, full of heartache and disappointment, violence and anger, deception and death without Him. How do you do it? If you’re reading this and and if the breath you’re taking right now was your last on earth and you don’t know 100% that when you die you ar
e going to a wonderful place called Heaven… how do you do it? How can you go about your day? Those who have someone they love that has left his earth; don’t you want to see them again? I find comfort in knowing that when I close my eyes in this life that the next time I open my eyes I will be in my Heavenly home. I am secure in that. I am thankful for the comforts and the faith he provides.
I’m about to say something that may lose you again. Hold on to your seat. My children’s father recently lost his battle to addiction. On the day he went to Heaven a Cardinal 
appeared in our yard. I’ve never seen a Cardinal in our yard and we’ve lived here almost three years. I googled it, but thought I would keep my findings to myself just like I did the pennies. This bird made an appearance in my yard every day and one day my daughter noticed it. Her being a lot smarter than I thought, she already knew what the Cardinal represented and immediately said it was her dad. So what did I do? I did what any other loving, level headed mother would do. I went and bought birdseed to feed the bird. From that day on there has not been a week that has passed that at least one and sometimes many Cardinals visit our yard. Sometimes we see them while we are out. Do I ignore it? No. It brings comfort to my children. I point the bird out and tell them that their dad has followed us again. It makes them smile.
Here are a few pictures of our visitors.
In our yard:
Making a visit to my sister in law Jennifer:
Followed us to the zoo:
That is God’s comfort. He provides in so many ways, but we have to be willing to see it. You may have begged him to give you a sign or provide you peace in some way, but have you stepped past the ugly coin on the ground because all you were willing to see was a dirty old penny?
xtracheeseplease 