Another beautiful summer day with a few hints of fall in the breezes that played a pleasant symphony on the porch’s wind chimes most of the day. “The finest symphony of all time belongs to the earth itself, in the gentle chorus of birdsong,” Unknown. I think that’s a beautiful expression of nature. My yard is full of cardinals and finches and doves, all flocking around the feeders and drinking from the bird baths, singing happily perched on the oak limbs and power lines.

The world is quiet in its morning beauty. Father Sky has been busy sketching his sky canvas full of clouds today. I enjoyed watching the gray cigar smoke clouds mixing with the pale purple clouds and the dull white clouds and I was wondering about a cloud’s journey through the sky. Are the clouds happiest on sunny blue sky days when the sun kisses their crowns or do they enjoy the roller coaster rides from the storm winds when they are bursting with raindrops?

I was faithful to Mother Nature this afternoon, sitting in the swing after supper watching for the pageant of sunset hidden by a thick layer of dull white cloud curtains. In my imagination, I saw the sun dressed in a formal strapless gown of sequined sunshine yellow, long white gloves on her slender arms, stepping on the stage proudly, her hand on the arm of the handsome Father Sky. As Father Sky walked the sun down the horizon a blaze of watermelon red flooded across the skyline and melted into the aqua and pale huckleberry of the high clouds. The sun dropped off the horizon as the blue colors of twilight raced across the neighborhood.

Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight and stepped from the twilight into the inky dark of the nighttime sky. He pulled the moon and stars from their cozy clouds covers and placed them on the stage of darkness to illuminate the world’s dreams. The moon was a luminous beacon of light in the black abyss of the sky, the stars a tapestry of twinkling diamonds. Night has awakened gloriously as the day goes to sleep sublimely.

Mother Teresa said, “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” I was thinking about this quote as I put my loose change from my purse into my coin jars, one for pennies, one for silver coins. We rely on coins for our worldly needs just as we rely on God’s love and support for our spiritual needs. God offers us security when we face hard times. I recently read a quote by Lillian Dickson. “Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once.” Remember taking your children to the “only a dollar store?” If it was our money they were quick to pick out a few toys but it if was their “one dollars” they were spending, they took more time and agonized over their decisions.

Our life is a coin but we aren’t all born the same coinage. Some of us experience life as shiny new pennies, hoping to be picked up and carried through life in a warm pocket, not willing to be brave and venture out with blind faith to enjoy this life God has blessed us with. Others of us work to shine the silver in the coin we’re given, making choices to live life to its fullest and experience all that life has to offer, willingly and faithfully following the path God has chosen for us, grateful for all the blessings gathered in the purses of our lives, sharing our life’s wealth with others.

We have a limited time on earth, we don’t know when our time will be over. We all have to be willing to spend our life’s coinage wisely. It’s the only coin we have. Some of us take life for granted, others put our coin in God’s hands, secure in the knowledge that God is in control. 1 Timothy 6:17-19 reads, “Use money to do good, be generous, and share with others.” Ben Carson wrote, “Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we give.”

Deuteronomy 15:10 states, “Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.” We can have faith in God, give our coins to him, and follow a path that he’s chosen or cast our coins in the piggy bank of life and hope it adds up to happiness. Our coins are gifts from God and God loves a cheerful giver.

“The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.” – Albert Einstein