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Erin has asked for stories of faith.  Well . . . I had an experience that will make you think twice about how and why things happen.  Do we even know . . . ?

We were a young family, two hardworking parents and five little birds in the nest.  Needless to say, we went through a lot of milk; we had to buy a gallon of milk almost every day!  Bill was a schoolteacher, and I was a secretary, and the timeframe was about 1981. 

One cool fall evening we needed milk and we had no money for it!  Bill had just enough money for gas to get him to work the rest of the week.  What were we to do?  Dejectedly I went down to our garage to find some old pop bottles I could redeem.  Do you remember when pop bottles were made of glass, and were redeemed for a nickel or a dime when returned to the store?  Well, I gathered up what I could find, put them into a brown grocery bag, and began the short walk to our neighborhood grocery store.  In the driveway something caught my eye, and when I bent down to pick it up I was in awe . . . it was two $20 bills folded together!  This was a literal fortune to me at the time.

I went into the house, and we called all of the neighbors to see if they had lost any money - no one had.  We called the paperboy; even though we couldn't afford the daily newspaper, he cut through our property on his rounds.  We thought perhaps he had been collecting payments that day and had lost some money.  His response was negative! 

And so we took it as a blessing.  I was able to get the milk and some other necessities, and we have lived happily ever after.  I cannot remember a time after that when we ran so close to the bone.  And as our fortunes have turned, we have strived to assist in quiet ways those less fortunate.

Amen :-)