10 Cent Miracles

“10 cent miracles?” I hear you ask, allow me to explain.

A 10 cent miracle is whenever you pray, or need help and God let’s you see what He’s doing. It’s what our trip in Europe was full of.

Sometimes they’re something unexpected, like a free place to stay in London for two nights. Or when we couldn’t get a hold of anyone at that free place, and were hopelessly trying to plan how to get there Emily’s friend just showed up.

Sometimes they appear when you use your brain or listen to Em’s gut and don’t stay at the, 100% guaranteed you’ll catch some horrible disease hostel in Oxford. Instead we ended up at a jolly bed and breakfast where no one puked their brains out at 3 am.

A 10 cent miracle was the amazing place we stayed in Cerri Italy.

Sometimes they’re a specifically answered prayer, like the fridge, hot water boiler, and tea that was provided in our above mentioned room.

Sometimes they’re a stranger setting you straight. On the Camino when we were walking and searching for way markers we couldn’t find, someone would on their own, stop what they were doing and set us in the right direction.

And sometimes a 10 cent miracle makes no sense. One of the days on the Camino I was positive I would be writing a blog about how we had to quite because Emily’s Achilles was acting up. After four hours of indecision, and being positive (at least in my mind) walking was wrong, we set out again. At the end of that gut wrenching time, we hadn’t come up with a better plan, so we decided to hike and see how her foot was by the end of the day. This time on the way out of the city I was more ok with the thought of walking. The amazing part, Em’s foot was fine for pretty much the rest of the day! It remained sore for the rest of the hike, but we finished it.

A 10 cent miracle was when we were allowed into a private garden to pick figs as the rain started pouring down. I realized later that was the hardest it rained all day, and in that moment, when I was the least than excited about walking in the rain again, God gave encouragement in the shape of a fig.

Why 10 cent miracles? One of the days we were “hiking” through an industrial zone, after awhile we decided to take a break at some shrine or memorial that was on the side of the road. I took my shoes off because my feet needed to air, and I sortta had some blisters by this point. While we were eating I knocked my backpack over and some stuff fell out which I put back in. We finished resting and headed out again. We’d gone maybe a block when I had to stop and get whatever it was in my shoe out. I thought it might have been the moleskin on my toes had come off. However when I reached into the shoe I discovered it wasn’t moleskin, it was 10 cents. It was like it was dropped in there from heaven. Hence in the sprit of Brother’s K (one of Emily’s favorite book), 10 cent miracles were born.

The cool thing, they’re still happening. In San Fran Mom was looking for a place to park, and after unloading the groceries at my brother’s apartment she drove around trying to find something. 10 minutes later she came back, I didn’t know until we left, she’d gotten a spot right outside the apartment.

The thought behind 10 cent miracles isn’t to put God in a box, or limit what He can do. It’s simply a way to recognize His work and marvel at what He does, every day, big things and “small” ones.  

When we were waiting in Santiago (the end of the Camino) for the bus to take us to the airport, I dropped 10 cents and couldn't find it. Some how it seemed fitting...