A WORD FOR TODAY, November 24, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, November 24, 2025
“He said, ‘What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.’” Luke 13:18-19, WEB
I went into a dollar type store the other day and they had a sign at each register that said, “Due to the shortage of pennies, if you are paying cash, please use exact change.” I usually carry a certain amount of change in my wallet because I do pay with cash often, but I had a different purse with me. As it turned out, I had some change in my pocket from our previous stop. When she read my total, I was flabbergasted because the change in my pocket was exactly what I needed! I don’t know if it was a coincidence or a “Godwink” but it made us all smile because it doesn’t happen very often. Everything we have comes from God, so perhaps he planned that moment!
The reason for the shortage is because the Federal government has stopped minting the coin. It costs more to produce a penny than a penny! We laugh because we know that there is not really a shortage. We all have a bucket full of pennies somewhere in our house. The shortage is in the marketplace where coinage is traded for goods. All the pennies are hidden away. Some stores have begun rounding the total of customers’ orders because of this penny problem. The truth is, you can’t buy anything for a penny anymore; you can’t even find things to buy for nickels, dimes, or quarters!
Even a dollar isn’t worth much anymore, is it? I can’t think of very many things I can buy with a dollar. You might be able to buy a cup of coffee in a fast-food place or a can of soda from a machine, although even those are usually more than a dollar. Candy bars have gotten so expensive, well over a dollar for a full-size bar. You can’t buy food for a simple meal like macaroni and cheese or tuna fish. I think it has bee years since I’ve seen cans of vegetables that are four for a dollar. Even the merchandise at the dollar stores sell for more than a dollar. I’ve begun calling it the “dollar and a quarter” store. Even that is a thing of the past, as many of the items are not $1.50.
Of course, the items at those stores are not usually very good quality. Jay Leno used to do a bit on the Tonight Show with items purchased at one of those stores. The packaging was funny, poorly worded and often completely different than the item inside. Every so often I see an article about the things you should never purchase at one of those stores. The cleaning products might be similar to the name brands, but they are so watered down that they are useless. The food is often just short of expiration date, already stale and sometimes even moldy. The electronics are previously owned or from bad production runs. It might seem like good stewardship to save money at a dollar store, but sometimes that dollar actually gets you much less than it would if you put it with a second and bought something of better quality.
An article in Reader's Digest asked a number of creative thinkers, “What is the best way to invest a dollar?” This seems like an impossible question because it would take lifetimes for a dollar investment to show any worth. There’s nothing you can do with a dollar! Yet the answers given were creative, thoughtful and amazing; some of them were realistic, some idealistic.
One respondent talked about going to a small town, most of which are struggling to keep Main Street from dying. He said he’d offer to buy the closed movie theater for a dollar, do some fundraising and reopen it. He said it had already happened in one small town, perhaps it could happen in another. Another respondent suggested that the best investment would be to buy seeds for a tree, plant the seeds and watch it grow. That investment would take years to bear fruit, but it would last for decades. An old proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is today.” Martin Luther once said, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree today.”
Several people responded with charities or people they’d support, investing in a credit union, sharing with a street musician, giving to a nonprofit or tech company developing resources for third world countries. One dollar might not seem like much, but if a thousand people all gave a dollar, then there would be a thousand dollars, which can do something. One respondent talked about the framed dollars that hang on the walls of small businesses, and how that one dollar was just the start of something fantastic. By shopping in small businesses, or supporting an artist, you are investing in the human spirit.
One suggested changing that dollar to four quarters and finding an old school video game to have an hour's worth of fun. Another suggested buying a newspaper to read about current events to stay informed and be ready to strike up an interesting conversation with a neighbor (I’m not sure you can buy a newspaper for a dollar anymore!) Another thought it would be fun to bury the dollar in a beautiful place and then create a hidden treasure map so that someone might have a fun adventure in search of it years later. Finally, one respondent said that they would buy (a cheap) cup of coffee for someone they admired and talk to them for a while. It is amazing what you can learn over a cup of coffee.
So, what would you do with a dollar (or your monetary equivalent)? Would you invest that dollar in a person or a business you want to support? Would you use it to buy a small gift or to share a moment over a cup of tea with a friend? Would you combine it with other dollars to make a difference in the world? Would you combine it with your time and talents to create something new and beautiful? Would you use it to plant wildflowers on the side of the road or vegetables in your garden? A dollar might not be much, but every dollar can make an impact.
Most of us don’t have a lot of resources; as a matter of fact, most of us have just enough to pay our bills and do what we have to do. But even one dollar used well can glorify God and do His work. We just have to be wise stewards of all that we are given. As we enter into the holiday season, we’ll be thinking about money in so many ways. Will we drop a coin into a kettle? What gifts will be buy for those we love? How can we share our lives and our resources with our neighbors?
The text for today refers to the faith we have been given by God, but our faith is manifest in the way we use the tangible resources that we’ve been given. Every dollar comes from God and by faith with God’s help we can use every dollar to grow His kingdom in this world.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org.