9-3-2017

 Good Morning All,

           Matthew 6:26; “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

      If you were walking down the street and you saw a penny on the sidewalk; would you stop and pick it up?  Most probably wouldn’t but at what amount would you, a dime, a quarter or does it have to be paper money before you even look?  As I thought about this; I realized how much my actions depend on the circumstances.  If I am in a hurry, I probably wouldn’t even see the penny.  When I am in a hurry, I tend to be in my own little world in my own little mind.  I am sure that I have walked right past friends and family and never even saw them.

    If I am not in a hurry, it would depend on the crowd.  If it was crowded, I probably wouldn’t stop to pick it up.  It would make a scene as people would have to divert around me and what would they think, a grown adult stopping to pick up a penny.  I would just keep moving; it is just a penny.  I would probably justify my action by thinking of some anecdote like how the military doesn’t ship pennies to their bases because it costs more to ship them than they are worth.  After all, it is just a penny and I am too busy and too important to be bothered by them.  I even usually leave them at the counter when I buy something; who really wants to bother with them anyway?

    There are times when I feel like that penny on the sidewalk.  Nobody bothers to pick me up.  Sometimes I get stepped on or worse.  I just lay there not worth the effort to bother with.  My fate as a penny is probably just to be swept into the storm drain during one of the sweeping scenarios that occur in a city.  I feel that way when it feels like I am alone.  There is so much to do and it feels like more just keeps getting piled on.  I feel the weight of the world and I am left alone; the penny that no one will pick up.  Maybe if I was a quarter, I would be more important and someone, anyone, would pick me up.  Maybe if I was shiny and new I could catch someone’s eye but I am old and dull and a little beat up by the way I have been used through the years.  There are times when I feel like that penny; perhaps you do as well.

     The cares of the world, the weight thrown upon us can be unbearable.  Maybe someone has abandoned you, a parent, a spouse or some other loved one.  You just weren’t worth the effort to them; you were only a penny that they wouldn’t pick up.  Maybe your job decided that you weren’t worth keeping.  Maybe it feels like the world has left you behind.  The technology is past you and you can’t afford it anyway.  Your friends speak of trips to the Bahamas or Mexico and you can’t begin to afford that.  You feel like a penny, left on the sidewalk, waiting to be swept into the sewers.

    God sees you and knows that you are worth picking up.  God sent Jesus to rescue you, from the streets, even from the very sewer where you ended up.  Jesus reached down and picked you up and claimed you as his.  He claimed you as his own because he values you.  He was not too busy or too embarrassed to pick you up.  You have great value to him and you always will.  You have enough value that he sent his Son to die for you.  He will never abandon you or leave you to bear the pain of this world by yourself.  His love for you lifts you up and gives you peace.  He gives you hope.

Father, you sent Jesus to pick me up from the sorrows and pain of the sewers that was my fate but now I wait for his return so that I may have eternal life with him forever.  Guard me until that day.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.  

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret