Devotional 3-12-11

It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has wrought toward me. How great are the signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. --Daniel 4: 2-3

While leaving our church with a friend one day, I stopped to pick up a penny. She asked if I thought pennies were left by angels and I said no, that I picked them up because I'm cheap (parsimonious is such a nicer word). She told me that she had found several pennies around the time of her husband's death and had become a believer. Later she shared the Angel's Pennies poem with me.

My father died on December 31, 2011. My friend Jim, from Arizona, sent me a lovely letter. He shared that following the death of his wife and my dear friend Sharon, he and their daughter had seen blue birds on a regular basis. Those sightings gave them a measure of comfort. In my smart-aleck (Dad-like!) way, I thought to myself, "Well, when golf balls fall from the sky I'll know Dad is sending me a message."

A couple of weeks later, I was taking a walk with my Mother and grandchildren. My grandson spotted a penny and picked it up. I asked to see the date which didn't mean anything to me so I gave it back to him and he put it in his pocket. After the grandkids had gone home, I found the penny on the floor in my house. Hummmm...was I supposed to have that penny?

The next morning I took my dog for a long walk. Like a lot of people, my walking time is also my thinking time and my thoughts went to the last week of Dad's life. I had been playing that week over and over again in my mind. As I walked I asked myself the same questions, had I done everything I could? Did I tell him I loved him? I had been so intent on staying rational and in control, should I have allowed myself to be more emotional? I was also thinking about the penny from the day before. As I was walking up the last hill of that day's path my dog, a little Shih Tzu who fancies himself a Bloodhound, stopped for about the 300th time to sniff something. I said, "Oh, Kip, what now?" And there in the grass was a golf ball. A golf ball! I'm glad the owners of the house didn't look out to see a woman half crying/half laughing over a golf ball in their front yard.

Do I think my Dad put that golf ball there? No. (Anyone who ever played with my Dad knows he would never hit one so far out of bounds). Do I think I saw that golf ball at a moment when I really needed to see it? Absolutely! Was that God? Yes, no doubt!

How great are the signs, how mighty his wonders!

Anita Gardner Farrell