I pick up pennies. I don’t apologize for it, I delight in it. Pennies can amount to riches if used wisely.

I remember reading an article once in which a not rich person was sharing an incident he once had. It seems he had a meeting with a very rich man while sharing a couple of drinks. When it came time to pay, the rich man complained to the waitress that his bill was wrong. She asked him what was the problem and he explained that he understood this to be hour in which two drinks purchased would earn a discount. She agreed and corrected his bill.

The poorer fellow asked the rich man why he made such an issue of just a few cents difference, to which the rich man replied, “That, my friend, is what makes the difference between a rich man and a not rich man. The rich man notices and realizes that every penny counts.”

I had an uncle who was a coin collector, pennies in particular. Through him I learned that some pennies are worth a lot more than just one cent. For example, a 1943 all copper penny – not the copper over lead pennies that were common that year could be worth as much as $250,000.00 if in perfect condition. Even if it were only in average condition, it could still be worth as much as $60,000.00. They are very rare.

But, pennies can also be a nuisance. While in college, we ended up with a lot of pennies. It seemed everything we bought on campus garnered us pennies in change. It was inconvenient to carry around a bunch of pennies, so they ended up in our dresser drawers.

Now, Saturday evenings were hunger times for us on campus. The cafeteria didn’t serve food on Saturday evenings, nor on Sunday mornings. As teenage boys without much money, we got hungry at those times. Then one Saturday evening my roommate and I got a bright idea. “How many pennies do you have,” he asked. “About 110”, I replied after counting them. “Me, too,” he exclaimed. “Let’s order a pizza.”

Now a local pizza store sold hot, delivered sausage pizza for $2.10 at that time. So, we ordered and paid for our pizza with 210 pennies. The pizza delivery guy glared at us with death in his eyes as he counted out the pennies. We did that a couple of times until they wouldn’t deliver to our address any more.

Pennies may be little and may not be worth much, but they can accumulate and can make a real difference. The missions ladies of our church raised over one million dollars in just pennies in one year.

Jesus also took note of pennies. In Mark 12:41-44 he observed how wealthy people put into the temple treasury some large gifts – mostly for show. But a poor widow dropped in just a couple of coins worth a penny. It was all she had and he praised her and said her little penny was worth more than what all the others contributed because it was given out of true love and sacrifice.

You see, pennies have real value!

– Just a Thought Dale Fillmore is lead pastor at New Day Church.