Devotional 3-28-12

ANGELS and PENNIES

Have you ever seen an angel?, No, you say. Well, neither have I. But if we had seen an angel would it have been wearing a long white robe, have feathery wings and a golden halo? I wonder. Frankly, in my bible readings I never paid much attention to any reference to angels. They were just there, kind of fluttering around. (I have to say I am embarrassed to admit this but confession is good for the soul).

However, somewhere along the way I was told of a poem about angels and pennies the gist of which was that if you see a penny on the ground and pick it up it was placed there for you by an angel who was watching over you particularly if you were experiencing a difficult time.

Again, along with my cursory attention to angels in general I did not recall this poem until the most difficult time of my life occurred last year when my dear husband died unexpectedly. Keith had been rushed to the Emergency Room following a small routine surgical procedure and then moved to the ICU where he stayed for eight days.

On one of those days I left his bedside for a few minutes to get some air and there on the threshold of the ICU room was a bright shiny penny. As I bent down to pick it up from somewhere in my mind's recesses came the story of the angels and the pennies. I knew then that God had sent His angel to be with me and to give me comfort and strength.

That was not the last time that my angel's presence was shown to me in some places one would not expect to find a penny: inside my car, under a pile of laundry, in a box of steak knives. I suppose a skeptic could find an explanation for these different locations but I will never be convinced they were anything but a sign sent to comfort me. By the way, I have kept each one of these special pennies. They all have a meaning, a reminder for me. I hope that when you most need comfort and strength you will find a penny left for you by your angel and you will be reminded that God is watching over you come what may.

PS I don't know if it is inappropriate to add a postscript to a devotion but I think I will anyway. In Cruden's Concordance it defines "angel" as "a celestial being, a messenger of God". How true.

Jean Dean