“What is God teaching you this year? What would be your one word?”
My friend Elsa posed this question to Lindy, Suanne, and me over salads at the Blue Cow Restaurant in the cute little Colorado mountain town of Morrison. At first I couldn’t come up with anything. Then God popped the image of 37 pennies into my head.
“Trust, that’s my word, that’s what God is teaching me.”
Recently I have been wrestling with waiting on God. When I wait, my trust beings to waver and fear seeps in. It is so much easier to trust when being still isn’t involved in the process.
When I walk Murphy, my rust colored labradoodle –with blond highlights (some may say grey fur), I talk with God. I lament, I give thanks, and I petition. Sometimes my mom prayer sounds like this, “Come on God. Enough. No more still small voice. Let’s get this going.”
I know… not very spiritual. But the God of the Universe isn’t hurt or offended by my words because he knows my mother’s heart.
As Murphy and I began our daily walk one Thursday morning, I noticed a penny as we crossed from the concrete driveway to the blacktop street. My son Jake would not have passed it by, he would have picked it up. My friend Pam would have retrieved it and pondered it’s message, “In God we trust.” I thought about the preciousness of that copper coin as Murphy and I made our way down to the lake. I decided I needed to pocket that penny on the return route.
God was reminding me to trust him.
As we got to the edge of the driveway, I bent down to retrieve the penny. I noticed there was a second one about five inches away. I grabbed that one, too. Then I saw a few more and picked up each one. Oh my goodness, there were 37 pennies scattered in front of my driveway.
I was convinced there was something significant about the number 37. I decided to check and see how many times trust is written about in the bible. In the NIV it is mentioned 38 times. I went out to find the 38th penny. It wasn’t there.
I told my prayer partner Vicki about the pennies. She said, “Do you know what my favorite psalm is? It’s Psalm 37.” I looked it up. The psalm is all about trusting God in the struggle. Hmm.
Tom and I attended church on Saturday evening last week. The sermon series has been on 1 Corinthians. Last week our pastor tackled 1 Corinthians 11– a timely message for a culture debating sexual identity and bathroom choices.
A good portion of the sermon was on gender roles and appearance. My oldest daughter, a young adult, has gender identity confusion. She was going to be attending church on Sunday.
