Spare Change

Saturday 1/1/2011 6:34 AM

My year began with my customary morning run.  The temperature was in the low forties and so I ran with my thumbs tucked inside my fists to keep my fingers warm.  I got near my turning around point and noticed what appeared to be coins on the road, reflecting the light from the streetlights.  I stopped to see if they were coins and, when I discovered they were, began picking them up.  It was very dark since there was only a crescent moon and I was midway between two streetlights so I had a hard time seeing the coins on the asphalt but if I walked a few yards past and looked toward one of the streetlights I could see the light reflecting off of the coins.  The coins were very cold and my hands began to chill as I gathered more and more coins.  I spent about ten minutes picking up the coins until my hands could hold no more.  As I scrabbled around picking up coins the biblical references of the widow and the lost coin and the parable about storing up treasures on earth came to mind.  I began to wonder who threw all the coins in the road.  Perhaps it was someone celebrating the coming of the new year who had a little too much to drink. 

I also thought about how I interrupted my running routine, spending time picking up money, but I sometimes resent the interruption of my daily routine when it involves talking with people, developing a relationship.  On my way home I ran, holding the coins in my hands being careful not to drop any, and I found my hands and fingers getting colder and colder.  Instead of running with my warm thumbs tucked into my palms I was clutching the coins.  The cold coins chilled my hands and fingers from the inside and the cool morning air from the outside.  By the time I got home my fingers were numb.

 I got home, counted the change, and found that I had picked up $11.22.  Being a mathematician, I couldn’t help but notice that today’s date is 1-1-11 and I thought about the two ones in eleven dollars as being the month and day and the twenty-two, two times eleven, being the year, 2011, with the zero representing a multiplication sign.  I also thought about my promise to God that if I ever found $20.00 while running I would take steps to publish some of my journal entries as many of my friends have encouraged me to do.

What is God’s message in all of this?  Is it to illustrate the importance of people instead of things?  Is it to show how I spend too much time scrabbling for the things of this world rather than loving people and investing in their lives?  Is it to show how cold the things of this world can leave us when they are our sole focus?  Is it God prompting me to start a blog regarding my thoughts about him and my experiences with him?  Perhaps it is a little bit of each one.