I found a Penny! It was hot and very sticky as I stepped outside onto the back porch. In about the time it took for the screen door to slam behind me, my t-shirt started to stick to me. It felt like somebody had thrown a bucket of hot water on me. I wandered out to the back yard where my grandmother was hanging up clothes on the clothesline. They had dryers in the store buy they were very expensive. Besides, when the temperature was above eighty degrees most of the year --- who needed a dryer?
I tugged on my grandmother�s apron and asked her if I could go over to my friend�s house to play. She said I could after I got the other basket of clothes out of the garage. I ran to the garage, got the basket of clothes that had just come out of the washer, and ran as fast as I could back to my grandmother. Even at nine years old, it was kind of hard to run very fast carrying a bushel basket of clothes that were still a little damp. I left the clothes at her feet and told her I would be back in about an hour. I really shouldn�t have been running with that basket of clothes. Now I was even hotter than when I first came outside. I had planned on running the two blocks down to my friend�s house, but decided that I would walk and try to cool off a little. I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of energy to play when I got to my friend�s house. My grandparents had a long paved driveway and a fairly big yard. My grandfather spent many hours making sure that the yard was clean, there were no oil spots on the driveway, the rosebushes were trimmed, and the grass was cut neatly. I was surprised when I found a can on the driveway! My grandmother must have dropped it on the way to take out the trash. I started to reach down to pick it up, but didn�t. I decided to kick the can over to my friend�s house. I could throw it in the trash there or we could play with it together � maybe hit it back and forth with a couple of sticks. I gave the can a big kick and watched it roll part way down the driveway. I started to walk down the driveway, but you just can�t play �kick the can� when you�re walking. So I ran down to where the can had stopped. I looked around for the next spot where I wanted to kick the can to. Looking down at the can, I pulled my leg back to kick --- and stopped. Something was shining next to the can. I leaned over and picked up a penny. You didn�t find money laying around our yard very often so I felt really lucky. I held the penny in my hand and kicked the can again. It went flying out to the gutter in front of the driveway and I took off after it. When I got to the can I put the penny I found in my pocket and looked for the next spot to kick to. Kicking a can was serious business. Once you got a good kicking can, you didn�t want to take a chance of it going into the drain or ending up in the middle of the street where you couldn�t kick it again. I found my spot and gave the can a good kick. I started walking away and saw something shiny again. Can you believe it? I found two pennies in one day! I started to think. It sure was hot outside. I had found two pennies, an ice cream cone was only five cents � that meant that I only needed three more cents to get an ice cream cone! I still had over a block to go to my friends house and I was sure that if I looked real close I could find enough money for me and my friend to get some ice cream! Who wants to play kick the can when you can find money and get ice cream? I put the penny in my pocket and started walking slowly down the curb. I never stopped looking down. I knew there was more money out there and I was going to find it. I walked right past the can and down to the corner. I looked both ways and crossed the street. I heard a dog bark as I crossed the street and looked back to where it was. I was a little scared of dogs and didn�t want one following me. I didn�t see the dog, but there shining on the blacktop was a penny. I ran out in the road and picked it up. Good thing my grandmother didn�t see that --- I would have really been in trouble. I was rich. I had three cents! Only two more pennies and I could get ice cream! I ran to my friend�s house holding the last penny I found in the air and yelling for my friend to come outside. I knew that we could find two more cents faster if we worked together. My friend came out and I told him all about how I had found three pennies already. I showed him the penny in my hand and told him I had two more in my pocket. I told him that we could share an ice cream cone if we could find just two more cents. With my penny in my hand, we started going around in circles through his and his neighbor�s yard. Sometimes we even got down on our knees to look closer in some of the high grass. I wanted to use both hands to look in the tall grass, so I put the penny in my pocket with the other two. After almost a half-hour of looking for more money, we went inside his house for some cold water. We sat at the kitchen table in front of the fan trying to decide what kind of ice cream we were going to get after we found another two pennies. While we were talking I reached in my pocket to pull out the pennies. They weren�t there! I checked my other pockets. Except for a couple of gum wrappers, they were empty too. I pulled my pocket out and there was a hole in it. I finished my water and left. On the way home, I wondered what had happened to my pennies. Did I pick up the same penny three times? After I crossed the street I saw that even the can I was kicking earlier was gone. I guess somebody had picked it up. Do you come to church with holes in your pockets? Or maybe a hole in your brain? Do you forget what you heard at church as soon as you leave? Can you remember what was said in church last week? Do you keep �learning� the same thing every week? The hole in my pocket kept me from getting that ice cream that would cool me off. The hole in your brain keeps you from learning more about God. You can�t grow if you have to learn the same thing every week. Let�s try to plug that hole in our brains so that we can learn more about Jesus and grow in Him! In His Service, Allen R. Cook - Cookie Outpost Chaplain Belton A/G -- Belton, Missouri e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web page: http://www.GodForceMinistries.1colony.com/ _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp _______ To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://rangernet.org/subscribe.htm http://rangernet.org Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
