Got Change?

When I was seven years old, I learned the value of saving my allowance. While on a family vacation in a gift shop, I fell in love with a small "Turtle" coin bank that I couldn't do without.  

I walked up proudly to the cashier with a dollar bill and coins in one hand and the Turtle bank in the other.

“That’ll be $1.78,” the clerk said.

I was perplexed. This was more than what was printed on the price tag.

“Got change?” the clerk asked. “You owe tax.”

I didn’t know about taxes, but I dug into my jeans pocket. Two nickels. Six pennies. Whew. I had enough, and a little left over.

I didn’t realize just how much change would be required. Early life lesson!

The vacation memory stuck with me, so I came up with a backup plan. I'd save all the extra change I could. When my little Turtle bank filled up, I saved my coins in an empty stationery box.    
  
When I became an adult, I saved coins in a gallon jar and kept it half full. The change came in handy if I ran low on money for groceries before payday, or needed to buy birthday gifts.   
 
If anyone said, “Got change?” I had it. By putting money aside, whether in the coin jar or the bank, I got by.  
   
But later, unexpected change caught me off-guard: my first husband passed away, and later our family lost beloved family members, friends, a business, investments, and jobs.     
    
If anyone said, “Got change?” I’d shake my head affirmatively. Yes. I had change, all right--life change. I couldn’t look to the coin jar or the bank account to help me with those things; however, I looked to my faith in God. He knew about the changes I’d been through—and the changes our family would experience.   
 
God knows everything there is to know about cost, too. His Only Son, Jesus, paid the greatest price of all when he gave his life on the cross—to save us from sin.    

The other day, I approached the counter at the grocery store.

“Got change?” the cashier asked.

I dug into my wallet and retrieved the needed coins.

Yes. I have change. My family and I have experienced it firsthand. We never knew just how much of it would be required. But we have a backup plan. We have a bank filled with God’s grace to get us through. We wouldn’t want to be without it!
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"For by grace you have been saved by faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." - Ephesians 2:8-9

Photo courtesy of Vecteezy.com     

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