My “Lucky Penny”

“Don’t you just love it when you are walking and going about your business, and you look down and find a “lucky penny”?  OK, so maybe some of you don’t like the terminology, “lucky penny”.  I really don’t believe there is luck involved, but I have called them “lucky pennies” for years, and so did my mom, my Aunt Louise, Dottie Rambo, and even my grandma Maxine.  So, I am not going to stop now.  I love finding them and it always gives me a little extra burst of energy, makes me smile, and warms my heart for me, I call it a special little “God wink”, and I sincerely believe it is His sweet way of letting me know, He’s with me.  Now, there is nothing biblical or really spiritual about what I have just said, it is just my own belief for me.

Honestly, I cannot even remember the first time I found a “lucky penny”, but I do know that every time I have looked down and found one, I have felt such a sweet little tinge of what I like to call “Sweet Jesus Peace”…just a very simple reminder for me of how much He cares and how much He is watching out for me.   There again, let me assure you…nothing in the “good book” about it nor is this a truth to live by.

Growing up quite poor, when I first started finding pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters…even dollars at times, I would eagerly save them and spend them once I got enough on little “candy treats” or an Icee from the local 7-11…those were wonderful times and I felt like I was living life large when I would walk in and put all that change on the counter.  Good memories.   But as the years went by and as I became a Christian, I started to look at these precious “lucky pennies” differently.   I still remember a hot summer day over in Gooding, Idaho and I may have been 15 years old and had been a Christian a year or so.  I was so new in my faith and had so many questions along with dealing with all kinds of “struggle and abuse” from the past…I was a mess…I really was.   I had fallen head over heels in love with Jesus, and I knew He had reached way down and honestly, He had rescued me from a horrible life…but being a young Christian, I was struggling and questioning many things.   I was at my Grandma’s house, and she had the most beautiful flower garden that had all types of gorgeous flowers, plants, little statues, pottery…it was so peaceful.   I was crying, praying, and asking God for direction and some kind of sign that I was on the right track on my new journey…I was feeling miserable…I felt lost…I felt so unworthy and unvaluable in all I was dealing with.  I sat down on this little driftwood stool that was there in the flower garden, and I looked around at all the beauty of the lush flowers…and all of a sudden, my eyes caught a glimpse of a copper penny in the strangest place.   There in a fold of a petal of some kind of flower, there was a penny…It wasn’t on the ground…it wasn’t in a place that was normal…it was a beat up, tarnished worn out penny…and it was right there on petal of a beautiful red colored flower.   I can still see it to this day.   I picked it out of the petal and looked down at the bottom of the stem of the flowers, and there were two more pennies…both of them beat up and old looking.   I picked up the 3 penny’s and looked at them and all of a sudden, I felt like God was speaking to me…”Dusty, take a look at these pennies…so many think they have no worth or value.  They are beat up, old, worn out but they do have such great worth and value…they do.   Just like these gorgeous flowers I have created, and the world admires the beauty of them, these pennies have amazing worth…and so do you”.   I knew that this would be something that I would hold onto for years and years.

And here it is 50 years later, and every time I find a penny…a coin…I feel the same feeling that I felt at that time…a sense of sweet peace and assurance.   Oh, I know there is nothing spiritual about it all, but I do think that God in all of His greatness wants to remind me quite often, of the great value that we all have and are to not only Him, but to so many others as well.   His word declares we are “fearfully and wonderfully” made…He designed us…He created us…He values us!   We have amazing worth.

I could write story after story and share so many times of how and when I have been in the lowest of valleys and going thru some of the darkest times, as well as when I have been standing on the top of the mountain and the sun was shining so bright on my life and journey…and just at the right time, I would find one of these little treasures and such a sweet reminder of His faithfulness to me, no matter where I am or have been on this journey.

So dear friend, always remember when you see one of these “penny’s”, go ahead and pick it up, say a prayer and know that there is great value in the penny and in you.