the nickel

This is a true story of how our Heavenly Dad performed a small miracle for a child who needed her tiny faith strengthened.

It was breakfast time and Mom and her six children sat around the kitchen table. "Mom, tell us a story." Mom sat sipping her coffee as her the children munched on their toast made of white bread, off brand peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam.

"Did I ever tell you about the time God did a miracle for me?"

Their eyes grew wide.

"NO! Tell us pleeeeease!"

She took another sip of coffee and swallowed. Her pause seemed to last forever as the children sat on the edge of their seats waiting for Mom to start.

They loved her stories.

"Well", she began...

Patty came from a very good home. She lived on a small farm with her parents and four brothers. They didn't attend any church or weren't a part of any religion. And they weren't quite sure they even believed there was a God. Patty and her brothers attended the country school down the road. When Patty was about 1o years old one of her teachers, who was involved with the Salvation Army, would tell the students about God. She would tell stories of her and her son and the Salvation Army. She encouraged the students to pray to God.

Little Patty truly wanted to believe there was a God, even though she was not taught at home that there was one.

So she devised a plan. One afternoon when she was all alone and no one was looking, she took a nickel and ran outside. She went behind the big walnut tree over by the hen house. The one with the swing and a tree house in the branches. Patty took her nickel and shoved it deep into the bark of that old tree. She made sure there was NO way that it would fall or even be pulled out.

That night alone in her bedroom she sent up a childlike prayer.

"Dear God, if you are real, please let that nickel be gone tomorrow."

Then she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Patty could hardly wait to run out to check the tree. The first chance she got she ran over to the old walnut tree. She found the exact spot where she'd placed the nickel. It wasn't there! The coin was gone and not even a mark was left from where it had been.

Just to be sure Patty examined the whole tree, looking up and down. She even searched the ground all the way around it. Nope, no nickel. It had disappeared!

God had performed a miracle for this child of his!!

From that day on, Patty knew there was a God and that He heard her prayers. She began to attend Sunday school with neighborhood children. In the evenings she would hide behind the stove to kneel and pray. Sometimes she was teased by her brothers. But Patty's faith couldn't be shaken.

God had performed a miracle just for her!!