The Best Surprise

Last Sunday on my way to church I had the best surprise.

It was extremely cold that morning (for Texas). Heading out the door, I slipped on an overcoat that I had not worn since last winter. I reached into my pockets and pulled out a folded piece of paper: A FIFTY DOLLAR BILL! I LOVE it when that happens! It has only happened to me three times in 50 years, since I tend to put my money in my wallet…a place for everything and everything in its place, you know.

The first time this happened, I was a teenager and found a $5.00 bill in a pair of pants. The second time, I pulled a $20.00 dollar bill out of a jacket pocket. What I can’t fathom is how that $50 got there. How often are you given a brand new fifty dollar bill as change? How often are you given a fifty dollar bill for any reason?

So now my mind is racing. Did some generous benefactor slip it into my pocket last year, and why? Was it given to one of my children as a Christmas gift, perhaps, who asked me to hold it for safe-keeping as we were leaving Grandma’s? (If my kids read this, one of them will surely “remember” that happening). Did I misplace $50.00 last year and give up looking for it?

Exuberant, I quickly shared my good fortune with everyone I talked to at church. (Perhaps I should say I shared the STORY of my good fortune). Amazingly, one friend had a similar experience at about the same time. He was looking for a book he hadn’t read since last year. Upon finding it, he saw an envelope that he was using as a bookmark. In it was a fifty dollar bill he and his wife had received for Christmas the previous year from an uncle. What a coincidence!

The next week as I told my story at school, another friend told about her gold mine. It seems that she keeps a zip lock bag in her purse to catch those little things that usually get lost at the bottom of the purse. She pulled the bag out one day because it was getting full, and noticed a folded one dollar bill at the bottom. She tossed the bag on the floor of her car and left it there for weeks. Finally, one day as she prepared to go shopping, she decided to retrieve the one dollar bill. To her surprise, folded within it was a hundred dollar bill.

It is interesting to me that I would feel suddenly blessed by something that I have had in my possession all along. I am not any richer than I was a month ago. The only difference is in my awareness. As a Christian, I ought to have this same exuberance about all of my blessings every day. So, how do I do that? One old hymn suggests, “Count your blessings; name them one by one. Count your blessings; see what God hath done.” I need to work on that.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed,

do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God the father through him.”

Colossians3:17