When I was in elementary school, in particular 2nd and 3rd grades, I was fortunate enough to have a “stay-at-home-mom”. We were far from rich and my mother staying at home meant we did without some things. We were a one car family, lived in a modest house, never ate out, and watched a black and white TV. Most of my clothes were made by my grandmother. She made all of us grandchildren shirts, pajamas, a house robe, and so forth. My parents took me to places like Sears or Wards and bought me blue jeans, socks, and underwear. We got a new coat every year, but the old one, despite being a tad short in the arms, was used for “playing” while the new one was used for school or church. Same for the jeans. I usually got one pair of shoes at the beginning of the school year and if my parents were lucky I wouldn’t grow too much and be able to make it until the next summer. I scarcely wore shoes in the summer. Church or when we went somewhere was about the only place I wore shoes. At home it was bare feet in and out of the house during the summer. Every Christmas I knew that one of my presents would be a pair of gloves. However, in those early years my mother insisted on me wearing mittens. Don’t laugh!
On those cold school days she would make sure I was buttoned up to the neck with my coat, a knit cap on my head, and those mittens. The last thing she would do before sending me out the door to catch the bus (which was THE coldest place of the entire day) she would take three pennies and slip them inside my mittens. She figured they were safest there from being lost. The pennies were my milk money to go with my sack lunch. There was something comforting about having all that attention before heading out for school. I knew I was loved.
So, me and my pals Thomas, Kelly, Nicky, and my best pal Eddie would sit together on the bus and depending on which year it was I had at least some of them in my class. The school I went to was small by today’s standards. There were only two classes per grade and only one 6th grade class. Elementary school for us was 1st through 6th grades. No kindergarten or pre-school. When I was going to Houston Baptist University years later I was a substitute teacher for a district outside of Houston. The first day I went to sub there I was amazed that the school was for only 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. There were 14 classes per grade! Next door to that campus was the kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades.
Anyway, there were always a few moments during the school day that there was a lag in which the teacher would tell us to “find something quiet to do”. If all else failed, I would take out one of those pennies, always the oldest and most tarnished one, and work magic on it. You know how pennies can get over the years. They may have been bright and shiny when they were new (sort of like us), but over time they turned dark. Sometimes you could barely make out the year on the penny. Well, I would take the dirtiest one and a pencil eraser and scrub that penny with the eraser until both sides looked nearly as new as the day it was made. The year would become clear again and it was like having a brand new penny.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that to ourselves? Well, truth be told, God can. If we let Him. Now, we won’t lose the physical wrinkles and age spots or suddenly look like we did decades ago, but through God’s Son Jesus, our lives can be made new again. As for me, I am happy to be one of God’s pennies and I’m so very thankful that Jesus provides the same service for me as the erasers did that I used on those pennies way back when.
