Children’s Story – Pennies from Heaven

In the early 1990s, soon after I came into the truth about God’s law, the Sabbath, and the eight laws of health, my wife and I were visiting our daughter in a small town in South Carolina. I had already decided to become a vegan vegetarian, and I was going to fix some Mexican food for lunch that day.

The town where my daughter lived didn’t have a grocery store with a lot of selections; so I drove over to another town seven miles east of there. Being so new in the faith, I was still a little unsure that I could trust God completely. While I was shopping for the meal I was going to fix, I thought as I looked in my shopping cart, “Everything that is in there is good for me.”

As I was checking out, the clerk observed what I was getting and asked me, “Having Mexican today?” Then as she commented about all the things I could put on the food that were contrary to my recent decision to “go vegan,” I thought to myself, “I’m not putting those things on there.”

She was cheerful and friendly, and as I looked at the digital readout of my purchase, I noticed that my change should be $10.22. Then she handed me $10.20. I remember thinking, “I wonder why she didn’t give me the other two cents?” Then I erroneously thought that maybe they don’t mess with such a small amount in South Carolina.

As I was leaving the store I was musing in my mind, “I wonder why she didn’t give me all my change?”

Just as I got out of the store, I looked down and saw a penny on the ground. I picked it up, and then noticed another penny nearby. As I picked it up, this thought came into my mind, “Jim, you can trust Me, even in the little things. Here’s your change.”

At the time this experience gave me courage, and over the years, just when I need it, I will sometimes find another two cents.

Shortly after this experience, I was walking around town to give the book, The Great Controversy, to the couples that my wife and I had played cards with in a local card club which I had decided to stop attending. As I walked about town distributing books, I ran out and returned home to get one more book, as I only had one more couple to visit.

After I picked up the book I walked out of my driveway, and there lying in the gravel at the edge of the road lay two cents.

Another time some friends were coming to town for a visit, on either Friday or Sabbath evening. I remember asking myself, “How am I going to keep the Sabbath while they are here?” I decided to go for a walk before they arrived.

As I walked past the junior high school, it was already dark, but as I went toward a street light on the other side of the parking lot, I saw two shiny objects there on the ground. I was too far away to tell what they were, but I didn’t need to, because I knew it was two cents—confirmation to me that God would guide me through my friends’ visit.

Once a brother in Christ and I had traveled to another town in northeastern Kansas to visit a family on the Sabbath to give them some encouragement. After the other brother had led out with the Sabbath message and we had eaten lunch, we all went for a walk. As we were walking I told my two cents story. Shortly after I finished the story, the man in the family found some money on the street. It wasn’t two cents, but it seemed an appropriate postscript to the story I had just told.

There have been other times when I have found just a penny. I’ll always look around for the other one. Sometimes I find it; sometimes I don’t.

Once another brother and I went out after fellowship dinner at the church to pass out some literature. I told him my two cents story. I finished just as we arrived at the parking lot across from where we intended to pass out the material. We got out of the car and went to the trunk. Just behind the car directly beneath the center of the trunk lay two cents. I get encouraged every time this happens.

Once I was back in South Carolina on the Sabbath. As I have done in the past, I find other Adventist believers in that area and arrange to meet them for fellowship. On one such occasion a brother and sister met me at a park somewhere north of the Citadel in Charleston. We had arranged to meet, have worship, then share a picnic lunch in the afternoon. I gave a short message about the truth, and as part of my presentation, I told them my two cents story. We had sat on a park bench together, and after we finished worship and had prayer we got up to walk back to where our cars were. There on the ground just by the park bench lay two cents that we had not noticed before.

There are some Bible and Spirit of Prophecy quotes that I claim quite often. “Lord, I believe. Please help my unbelief.” Mark 9:24. “Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it. It is Thy property. Keep it pure, for I cannot keep it for Thee. Save me in spite of myself, my weak, unchristlike self. Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Thy love can flow through my soul.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 159.

My hope is that as we go on to perfection, we can help each other along the way. Please, Lord, don’t let us die in our sins. May your page and my page in heaven be clean. Amen.