Pennies for Heaven

There was a time when my friends and classmates thought it beneath their dignity to stoop and pick up a penny - or even a quarter - if they happened to see one lying on the ground, despite good old Ben Franklin's adage about seeing a penny, picking it up for luck.

Then they matured a bit, and began defending their unwillingness to pick up change based on the annual salary rate (if I stopped to pick up that penny it would cost me $25 worth of my time based on my current income. . . )

But I never succumbed to such snobbery. I always pick up pennies when I encounter them just lying there on the ground doing nothing. There have been sermons preached on stewardship that argue for picking up loose change and overseeing all within your purview to the best of your ability. But I don't think that's why I do it.

Perhaps I learned it from my father who can't stand to see anything wasted. I used to call his mindset Depressionism - once you have gone without, you save everything. Perhaps it is because I had to work hard to earn a living, starting at an early age. I learned the value of money because it took me hours and hours of hard labor to earn enough money to buy simple things, things that were not prevalent in our family of eight children.

More recently though, I have become a bit more purposeful in picking up loose change. I think of children in this world who are going hungry, and I can't stand the thought that there is money lying around on our streets while they need food. You've heard those commercials - for just pennies a day, you can feed Carmelita and children like her. You can put clothes on her back and provide needed medical care and send them to school.

Really. Well, then it behooves me to grab all the unused money I come across and send it in. If I can feed just one child for a day, then it is worth my time to bend over, pick up a coin, and slip it into my pocket. When I get home, I put it in an empty hot cocoa tin someone gave me a few Christmases ago, and let it accumulate. When the tin is full, I cash it in and send Samaritan's Purse the amount, rounded up. You know, the organization that does the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes?

I have nothing against shoeboxes, but I just can't send a child junk when I know they need food and medical care. So this is one small way of helping out. I wish it could be more, but I don't often find dollars floating about (although sometimes I do!). Anyway, every few months, I send a few paltry dollars - but its just money that someone dropped and left. No big value to anyone. Except maybe Carmelita and her siblings.

So I encourage you - next time you see pennies on the ground, pick them up and start a penny tin. If more people sent in a few dollars they found lying about, more hungry children could have a decent meal. And I have to say that you're more likely to find money lying about at Christmas time, so its a great time to begin.

Mazel Tov!