I heard a rumor the other day that the U.S. Mint may be doing away with the penny. Production costs to actually make the coin are more that its spending value. Add to that the fact that 7 out of every 10 people would rather walk over the little Lincolns than bend down to put a penny in their pockets. Annie Dillard writes about finding the small bits of treasure in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:
"I've been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But-and this is the point-who gets excited by a mere penny? If you follow one arrow, if you crouch motionless on a bank to watch a tremulous ripple thrill on the water and are rewarded by the sight of a muskrat kit paddling from its den, will you count that sight a chip of copper only, and go your rueful way? It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop and pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then since the world is in fact planted with pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get."
This is a time in our lives where we have been cultivating poverty and simplicity. The question is...has it been healthy poverty...or bitter. Have I been grumbling as I collect that tiny bits of provision around me, or do I rejoice in what has been "cast with a generous hand."
That is what I want. I want to see God at work in life, to see beauty in the cracks, and to see worth in the pennies. To let these unwrapped gifts make my days.
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