Walking through the small local general store, Jennie’s eyes were wandering towards the baskets of small, individually wrapped candy with a sign behind them declaring that each one only cost one penny. She looked at the different mints, chewing gum, colorful chewy rolls, sugar in a stick, and so many more options and thought, “I’d love to just have one piece.”
Jennie’s family was poor and going to the store and purchasing something other than a necessity was rare. To most of the other kids in town, buying a piece of penny candy was a normal after school activity. But for Jennie it was such a treat. She thought, “Surely asking my dad for a penny for one small piece of candy isn’t greedy or unreasonable. I’ll head home right now to see if he’ll give me a penny!”
When Jennie got home, she walked into her dad’s office where he was working and politely asked him for one penny so she could go get a piece of candy from the store.
“I’ll tell you what, Jennie.” her father responded. “Why don’t you sweep my office floor and whatever you find on the floor for change is all yours to go buy whatever you want from the store.”
Frustrated, Jennie scoffed and walked away to go get the broom. She thought, “It’s only one small penny! I’m not asking for much and I asked so politely! I don’t get why he wouldn’t just give it to me. I wanted to go right back to the store and get the candy. Now, I have to sweep his floor which is going to take awhile and I’ll probably still only get one penny. Or worse, there won’t be any change on the floor.”
While Jennie went to go get the broom, her dad reached in his pocket to dig for some spare change. He pulled out an assortment of dimes, nickels, and pennies and carefully hid each one on the floor in his office. His love for Jennie was so strong and he wanted to give her anything she requested, especially because she came in and asked for such a simple request and so politely.
Jennie walked back in with the broom and without hope of much reward, she started sweeping in one corner of her dad’s office. But as she pushed the broom underneath his desk, it dragged a nickel out with it. She jumped with excitement and quickly grabbed the nickel showing her dad what she discovered! Now with a spark of hope and enthusiasm, she continued sweeping and turning over more and more coins.
When she finished sweeping the room, she laid all the coins out on her dad’s desk and counted the change. She had swept up six dimes, six nickels, and ten pennies. One whole dollar! Jennie was so excited! She had started by asking her dad for one small penny and now had a full dollar. She hugged her dad, thanked him and ran to the store to get her candy.
When Jennie got to the store, she selected only a few of her favorite pieces of candy, but also selected a few that she knew her dad would enjoy. Then the rest of the money she placed in her small coin bag to save for another day.
—
I look at this silly, made-up story and think of how similar it is to how many situations in my life go. Jennie asked her dad for one penny, not realizing that he was going to give her a dollar. She would’ve been happy with just a penny, but her dad wanted to bless her and show his love for her by giving her more than she asked for.
How many times do we do this with God? We ask Him for something small and God gives us so much more than we even realized would be possible.
You approach God with your request, thinking it’s all you need, it’s reasonable, so hopefully God will give it to you. But you’re told to sweep the floor. This is so confusing, frustrating, and can make us feel like God doesn’t care because we don’t realize what we’re about to uncover while sweeping the floor.
You sit here begging God for a penny and He is preparing you for receiving a dollar. The process is longer, harder, and requires more work and you may fall confused because you feel like you would be satisfied with just the simple penny you asked for.
But God sees and understands so much more than we do. And while you may be satisfied with a penny, He isn’t. He wants to bless you and give you more than what you ask for. What we ask for and beg God for is so small because we think a dollar is out of reach, or we don’t even realize the value difference, or we might not even be aware of the dollar option. We only know of and understand the worth of the penny.
So it’s not about having faith that God will give us exactly what we want. It’s more about having faith that He cares for you enough that He will provide and take care of you even if you don’t get specifically what you’re asking for.
We may doubt that He might not give us the penny, but we shouldn’t doubt that He won’t give us something when we ask Him.
Maybe you’re in the sweeping stage and you feel confused as to what God is doing. It’s so discouraging to feel like you’ve given Him a simple request and it feels like He’s told you “No”. But keep sweeping, my friend. You may turn over a dime or nickel soon and hopefully that will give you the hope and encouragement to keep sweeping.
It may feel pointless right now, but if you keep doing what God is asking of you, stay faithful, He will reward you with so much more than what you’re asking for. Remember, He sees and knows so much more than we do.
I know it’s challenging. And it requires patience and trust. It takes more work and time, but the reward is so much larger.
Trust your Father. Have hope that He will give you a dollar even though you only asked for a penny.
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
-Matthew 7:11 ESV
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
-Romans 8:32
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
-Ephesians 3:20-21
