Thursday, November 24, 2016

I was in the backyard.  I had finished cutting the grass and look down and saw something.  It wasn’t shinny, except for the small stars on it.  I picked it up.  It was a 1912 Liberty Head V Nickel.  My first thought was. “I’ve found a gold mine!”  Later I discovered that if it was a “G” series, it may bring $2.00.  If an “S” series, closer to $200.00!  The only problem, it is well worn and almost impossible to tell which series it belongs to.

Jackson Madison County General Hospital opened its doors on August 11, 1950.  That area had been outside the city limits until then.  Interstate 40 was finished through Jackson in the mid sixties.  Our house is about two miles north of the Interstate.  The area we live in was farm land until the eighties.  Finding a 1912 Nickel in my backyard creates questions.  Who dropped it?  What were they doing on that specific spot when the Nickel was lost?  If it was lost in 1912, the average weekly salary was $12.  That figures out to $2 per day.  A nickel could buy a lot more back then than it does now!

One of the first things I thought of, once I realized sudden riches was only a malfunctioning dream, was the story of the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10).  Did the individual who lost this five cent piece search for it as diligently as that woman did in Jesus’ story?  The joy she felt and the news she told was never experienced by this nickel’s owner!  It took  104 years to be discovered and owned again.

Jesus’ story goes deeper than finding a lost coin.  He was talking about a sinner repenting and causing joy in heaven!  Imagine, JOY in heaven!  An individual causing that joy!

Today is Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 24, 2016.  Our nation celebrates a day of thanks.  Yet, there are other days in the year.  Thanks is not limited to only one.  As a nation and as an individual, we have much to be thankful for.  Little things.  Big things.  Forgotten things.  Remembered things.

The tragedy on Golgotha 1,983 years ago was turned into our “thanks.”  My sins were his burden.  My sins were forgiven.  My sins were forgotten.  He made it possible for me to receive his righteousness and discard my filthy rags.  I stand before the Father as His redeemed child because of Jesus.  His grace is illuminated by the cross.  I am exposed to its rays.  Like that nickel, I have been found!  I have an owner.! I belong to him!  My Thanksgiving Day began on May 9, 1957.  My thanks has continued from that day.  Thank you my God for your love, your grace, your mercy, your patience, your forgiveness, and your bad memory (Hebrews 10:17).  Thank you Jesus for being my sin sacrifice, my Savior!  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!