Theology in a Penny Roll

Ever give a roll of pennies much thought? That paper tube that has fifty copper circles, stamped with the face of Abraham Lincoln. When you first try to fill an empty tube by hand, it can be a wonderful and thrilling source of frustration, until you develop a system that gets a few in place and one end folded flat. Even after a good start, a rebellious penny can interrupt the process and cause new attention to detail. Once you have a full roll with the right number and both ends properly folded, there is no need to count the next roll, just stand them next to the first, when they line up, they will have fifty, they will be perfected, they will be complete, they will be “holy”.

Consider the penny and paper tube to be created by the master. The tube, filled with pennies, stacked flat with nothing else inside, and having both ends folded closed is the masters perfect design. Anything else is “sin”.

Imagine, if you will, a man and his wife, call them Adam and Eve. They don't spit in God's face. They don't try to forcibly take over the Garden of Eden and keep God out. They don't try to sneak up on God to attack Him. I hope you get the point.

All they did was put something other than a penny in the stack. Maybe they didn't make a penny fully lay flat, or a penny was just dirty. The HEART of the matter is that the penny stack did not match up to the Master's Design. Their Penny Roll was no longer “Holy”.

In our penny rolls we get a piece of sand, mildew or other foreign object, (or penny turned on edge), so God chooses to fix us. To do so He does one of two things. One, He dumps our pennies out and restarts the filling process. Two, He breaks the paper roll open, removes the unwanted parts, and puts us back together with celestial duck tape until “He restores our soul”. The Great Physician can bring the fibers of the paper back together again or leave us wounded in this world, should it serve His purpose. The dumps out or rips out choice might not be ours, but if we rebel it will certainly be ripping.

Sadly we have been deluded into thinking, in this life, that the hard things, (sand, rocks, etc), are supposed to be there. Ezekiel 11:19 “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh”. The stony heart is accepted in this world, so when God has to use harsh measures to pull it out, such as devastating disease or the death of a child, we point our finger at God and cry FOUL!

Our superior educated minds pass judgment on God that He has no right, or reason to mess with our penny stacking. We were doing just fine on our own.

The trouble is, in fact, it just did not measure up to the Master Design.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Only He can fill my penny roll with CLEAN pennies and get it FULL, get it RIGHT, get it HOLY.