Appreciate the many free gifts of the Father.
Pennies are no longer used as currency in many countries, but Jude’s (RIP 2025) Restoration article from 1986 can still help us to open our eyes and hearts.
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In her fascinating book A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard tells how as a child she loved to hide pennies for someone else to find. She used to draw big arrows to guide some lucky passer-by to the surprise, excited to think of them receiving this free gift. Then she goes on to talk about a world strewn with pennies from a generous hand.
But can we get excited by a mere penny? She suggests cultivating a healthy poverty and simplicity so that finding a penny will make our day.
The Father cares about pennies. He has scattered them everywhere for us to find, strewn the world with them to delight his children. Jesus says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, yet not one of them is forgotten by God.”
He tells us of our Father’s care for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. Are we simple and poor enough to care about pennies too? Are we little enough to stoop down to look at them, small enough to treasure, cherish, and appreciate the many free gifts of the Father?
If we are, our smallest journey can be an exciting adventure, full of surprises. A famous naturalist was once asked how he had spent his holidays. “Traveling,” he answered. “I made it halfway across my backyard.” Like him, we too can make so many wonderful discoveries right before our eyes.
Early spring brings bright, shiny, new pennies; a few here, a few there, and few of us fail to enjoy some of them at least— the first robin, those early green shoots, the first spring flowers surprising us with their unexpected appearance.
But then the Father gets carried away with his game and strews his pennies with reckless abandon, fabricating1800 species of birds for this continent alone and then going on to make millions of each kind. He extravagantly puts six million leaves on a single tree, 52 million spores on a single fern.
As this explosion of life goes on, do we tire of his pennies? Do we start to take them for granted and walk by blind and uncaring?
Or is our excitement as fresh and new as a child’s, continually delighted, perpetually surprised at the continual, ever-changing shower of pennies from our Father’s lavish hand?
[Spring tulips at Madonna House 2026. Photo by ©Mark Olszewski, Madonna House.]
