|
It had been a long week. I’d had people working over 3 days to repair floors and replace a leaking bathtub in my bathroom. Water damage over a long period of time had caused the floors to soften and rot. It turned out to be a much bigger job than I had hoped with extra materials and a specially ordered tub needed. It was finally done but it had eaten up almost all of the money I had spent months and months saving, all just to fix my broken down house for a little longer.
I was walking in the rain stewing over all of this. It seemed like life was a long series of one problem after another. I felt like a punching bag being worked over by a boxer. Finally, I spoke to God about it. “Why is this life so tough at times dear God?”, I asked.
Just as those words left my lips I saw something. It was a penny gleaming in the mud. My mind flashed back to memories of my Mom. She had battled Cancer for years often suffering terrible pain. Yet, through it all she remained optimistic. One day when we were walking together she saw a penny on the ground, picked it up, and told me that a found penny was always a sign that God loves us and is watching over us. When the Cancer finally took her from this world, I was heartbroken. I remember drowning in grief on the day we buried her. But then as I was about to go home, I saw a penny shining in the snow. And since then I have found hundreds of them over the years.
I bent down with tears in my eyes and wiped off this one. Suddenly my problems seemed small next to God's love -- that of my mom, too! I smiled, put the penny in my pocket and pledged again to try and live a life as full of love, giving, kindness, and joy as my Mom had. I thanked God and promised to try and be a gleaming penny myself in this world, reminding everyone that this world’s problems are temporary but God’s Love for us is eternal.
"So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine...it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." (1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT)
Joseph J. Mazzella
|
