Two Nickels

A lot of people have shared my desk, not my computer desktop, but my old fashioned knee-hole desk like everybody's dad had. My dad's desk seemed huge when I was a kid. It reminded me of Dad's faithfulness and security. He frequently worked at his desk. I would sneak up to a corner and rest my chin on it watching him crunch numbers and ruminate on new ideas for his clients. I admired his organized workspace and his creativity.

Recently I've started feeling greater ownership of my desk space because my kids have moved away and my husband only uses my desk on Sundays. So I have six-sevenths ownership right now. My favorite part of the desk is the top center drawer where all the pens and stuff are stashed away. I've always loved little cubby compartments with neatly arranged office supplies in desk drawers. You're not really set up for business until you have cubbies in your drawer with neat little piles of post-it notes and paper clips.

Someone dropped two coins in my desk. I don't know who did this or why. Yet, over the past year I have often opened my desk drawer searching for some specific office supply that hasn't yet been neatly ordered in one of my plastic cubby organizers. Then, my eye catches two shiny nickels in the front right compartment. "What are they doing there?" I ask myself. Immediately I think of that phrase people use to exaggerate their depleted funds, "I don't have two nickels to rub together." My next grateful thought is always, "Ha, I do have two nickels to rub together. They're right here in my desk drawer!"

My mind then wanders to the lists of riches in my life. In spite of my shortcomings I have great kids and a treasured marriage that has risen above the struggles. It's taken me fifty years to overcome the angst of money management and finally approach the subject in faith. See the sparrows? They don't worry about their two nickels and neither do I. They're safe in my knee-hole desk drawer cubby: safe like I've always been while admiring my dad working to keep me fed, warm, protected, and loved. My father in heaven does the same thing now. He reminds me with two little nickels tucked away in a big old knee-hole desk drawer.