This is a true story – about a penny … a magic penny! And it’s a story about love … magical love.  It all began one Sunday, as I was about to teach a song to children in a local church.  Before the service, I put some pennies in my change purse to use as a visual aid, but seconds before the Service was to begin, I realized that my change purse with the pennies wasn’t where it was supposed to be.

Quietly, I began to ask people if they had a penny.  No one did.  And then Jack found one!  But as he went to give it to me, it slipped through his arthritic fingers and rolled on the floor.  (If you know the words to the “Magic Penny” song by Malvina Reynolds, you’ll know the song talks about … a magic penny rolling on the floor!) I picked up the penny and as I put it into my pocket … wouldn’t you know it, I felt the change purse!  What to do?   Use the pennies in the change purse?  Or revert to using just the one penny that I’d received from Jack?  I decided to go with Jack’s penny lovingly given to me.

As the children and I walked around the church singing the ‘Magic Penny’ song, the penny gently passed from person to person and when the penny came back to me … on the very last word of the song! … completely unplanned, the children and congregation and I were grinning from ear to ear. As we all joined in the final verse, I wondered if I had enough pennies in my change purse to give one to each child.  Here is where the penny Jack gave me became magical … again.

On any given Sunday, there are usually only 3 or 4 children in that church,
but on that Sunday there were nine children.  When I opened the change purse I discovered eight pennies.  Adding the penny Jack gave me,
I had nine pennies  … exactly the number of children in church that day!

Like the magic penny, love is magical. Let’s not hold onto love. Let’s give away love!  And let’s be confident that when we give love to others, when we share love, we “end up having more”!

© june maffin
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Lyrics: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/MALVINA/mr101.htm