The Penny

I wanted to share this story that was written by Jack Hayford. It is a great story, so if you can take the time to read it, please do so. The one thing that God is showing me through this whole process with Kim and her baby girl, is that no one is too far from God that he can’t make ways to bring him back to Him. That His love for the lost is great. That we can make a difference in just one soul at a time. That there are people all around us that need us, we just have to be willing to be open. And when we are obedient it often requires sacrifice, but our God is so faithful. We have seen that proven to us over and over again the past 3 weeks. I should not be amazed…but I am actually in awe at the Lord and how he has worked everything out. EVERYTHING! Down to the little details. God really enjoys meeting the details of our life.

NOTHING more aptly frames the heart of Father God’s love for people than the sacrifice and resurrection of His Son. And while God’s love for the world is inclusive of every human being, it is also very specifically directed at each one of us. This heavenly truth was brought to my earthly understanding several years ago. I’d just finished a meeting at a local restaurant and was walking across the parking lot to my car when I looked down and noticed a penny on the asphalt. Frankly, I thought, “It’s more work to stoop over and pick up that thing than it’s worth.” But as I was about to get into my car, there came a whisper in my soul from the heart of God: “It’s still ONE.” And I knew the Lord was talking about His heart for people.

I recognized God wanting to sensitize me to His great love for people and the preciousness of every one. So I bent down and picked up the penny. I wasn’t looking for them, but in the three weeks that followed, more than a dozen times, I found a penny. They “just appeared.”

Walking through a mall, I spotted a penny in a shadowed area under a ledge. The only reason I saw it was because of the Lord’s prompting. I felt self-conscious about getting down on one knee to reach over and get that penny, no one paid any attention to me. But the Lord knew the penny was there.

One afternoon I was walking across a busy street, and I saw a penny laying in the middle of traffic. Cars were whizzing by-I wasn’t even in a crosswalk-so I went and waited at the curb until there was a break. I knew I needed to be mindful to go back and get that penny. When I retrieved it, the penny looked like a steam roller had gone over it. It was misshaped and pocked with bits of gravel that had been ground into it. It was in really bad shape.

A couple of days later I was passing through the utility room in our house, and there was a penny lying on top of the washer. I asked my wife, Anna, “Honey, what’s this penny here?” She said it had been left in someone’s pocket. I took that penny and added it to the rest.

Finally, I was returning home on a flight that took me through the Atlanta airport, where I had a brief layover. It was very late at night. I went into the men’s room, and on the floor by the urinal was a penny. It was filthy. Doubtless, the place had not been cleaned for hours. But I could not refuse to pick up that penny. I knew I was being taught something about the heart of God. I grabbed a handful of paper towels, blotted things up - finally, I picked up the penny with a paper towel, put it the sink, and used all the soap there was to wash it. I took the penny home, keenly aware I was…that Jesus came not only so all people might be forgiven and receive eternal life, but also to overthrow everything that withers our present experience in this present moment: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

How precious is the one who may be right there in the open, like that penny in the parking lot. There are people who are wide open to the love of God. Others, living in the shadows of loneliness or shame, are uncertain about it. People are passing by, but nobody notices them, and they feel uncared for. The tenderness of God’s heart caused my eye to fall on that penny in the shadows. I had to bend down and reach behind the ledge to get it. It would have been easy for me to think, “I’m not going to do this because people will think it looks dumb.” A loving God is willing to stoop with complete indifference to what anyone else thinks because of how precious you are to Him. The penny in the street was flattened and scarred. There are people who look good on the outside, but their soul has been pulverized. The story behind that damage would be a tender one to hear, but God already knows it. Though that penny wouldn’t be worth anything to anybody else, it was still one. The busy traffic kept me from picking it up, so I waited.

That last penny, the one I found in the airport bathroom, wasn’t really lying on the floor beside the urinal; it was in the urinal. God was making clear to me that there isn’t anywhere He won’t reach; there isn’t any one He won’t reach to. It can be the person who is wide open, like the penny on the sidewalk. Or the person who is hiding in the shadows. Or like the penny that had been through the washer, one who’s been through a storm of circumstances. The parable of the pennies is the story of the love of God for people. Its lesson is that each one of us is precious to the heart of God. That He wants to touch each one with the compassion, tenderness, hope, and victory of the Savior. And that out of His love, He is willing to reach into the most problematic, darkened, washed-up, or fouled circumstance…”