I overheard Josh and Joel talking tonight…

Joel – I am going to collect all the pennies I can!!

Josh – Joel you can’t get rich on just pennies.

Joel – How do you know?!?

Josh – ????

Well, Josh you do have to start somewhere, why not with pennies. I love the total hope and trust Joel has in his dreams. Why can’t you get rich from pennies? Why can’t I grow up and build a castle and have one hundred chariots and two hundred horses? In the eyes of this 5 year old he still believes if you can think it then you can accomplish it. He amazes me. Over the last few months Joel has been told no hundreds of times yet he still dreams big.

I think the older we get the smaller our dreams get. Or at least we see some dreams as attainable and others as unattainable. Some people even become afraid to dream at all. There was a time several years ago in my life when I had started to fear there was never going to be anything better for us. There was a time when I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was afraid to hope for anything better because I could not see past our circumstances. Thankfully, I still had faith in the One who sees the whole picture.

I think when we hope for the basics a home, clothes, food, and health. We can get stuck on the fact that there are people in our world that live on streets, with only the clothes on their backs who go to sleep hungry. Hospitals are full of people who are sick and suffering… so why do I think I deserve to have life easy. It really isn’t a case of having an easy or hard life, or deserving or not deserving. The truth is no one deserves to be homeless anymore than someone deserves the beautiful house with the white picket fence.

We are told in John 16:33 In this life you will have trouble. In Matthew 5:45 we read, He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

I think having hopes and dreams are a wonderful thing for those of all ages. While there are hardships in this world there is always hope. If you are struggling through something and you are having a hard time catching a glimpse of the light at the end of your tunnel I assure you it is just around the bend. Don’t give up hoping and dreaming, because, if you read on in John 16:33 Jesus says, But take heart! I have overcome the world. Yes, troubles won’t escape you, we are promised there will be troubles but the great hope is there is a Saviour who has overcome.

We are also created in God’s image who I think had the greatest dreams of all. He saw you and me and all sorts of creatures, creepy crawlies, galaxies, northern lights, waterfalls etc. and He brought them all to fruition. Remember I mentioned I was afraid to dream… how that changed for me was I asked God to give me His dreams for my life. He gave us all the ability to dream. To believe that you could become rich from just pennies.