PENNIES FROM HEAVEN

There's a story about a man and his wife who had been invited to have dinner with the man's boss. Walking from the parking lot to the front door of an exclusive restaurant, the boss stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment. 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 treasure. How absurd the wife thought! 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 causally 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 on the top of the coin.”

“In God we Trust?”

The boss then explained, "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!"

There are so many conflicting voices in the world attempting to persuade us to follow them in order to find, happiness, prosperity, power, and fame; however, we know from reading the holy scriptures that we must not place our trust in the arm of flesh, but we need instead to become totally dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord to guide and direct our lives.

O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm. (2 Nephi 4:34)

Angel's Pennies

Author:  Unknown

I found a penny today
Just laying on the ground.
But it's not just a penny
This little coin I've found.

Found pennies come from heaven
that's what my Grandpa told me.
He said Angels tossed them down
Oh, how I loved that story!

He said when an Angel misses you
They toss a penny down,
sometimes just to cheer you up
To make a smile out of your frown.

So don't pass by that penny
When you're feeling blue.
It may be a penny from heaven
That an Angel's tossed to you.

For all of our married life, Sister Lindsay has never failed to stop and pick up the pennies that she finds lying on the ground. In our missionary apartment we keep a small jar that is slowly being filled with found pennies. May I suggest when you next spot such a coin beneath your feet (and they do seem to be quite plentiful), that you stop, pick it up, smile, consider whether your total trust is in God, and think of this small token as a penny from heaven!