March 30 – “A bad penny”

Have you ever heard someone say, "That keeps showing up like a bad penny"?  What does that mean, anyway?  I even looked it up.  I found the history.  It supposedly was originally a bad shilling in England.  A Scottish guy named Sir Walter Scott write that "the bad shilling is sure enough to come back again."  It means that something distasteful is sure to keep recurring.  OK.  Shilling.  Penny.  Both are money, right?  So what is inherently bad about having a penny show up now and then?   Speaking of bad pennies, the mystery bike disappeared from the front porch where the police officers put it yesterday.  And no one saw it leave.  Perhaps it waits until we sleep before it continues on its eerie journeys.    Our friendly neighborhood police officer came by when we were out in the front yard with Cailyn.  He had the code enforcement lady with him at the house next door.  They both even went inside.  She took pictures in there, and added a few more of the outside as well.  Said she would send off a letter giving whoever owns it ten days to clean up.  I have to admit, this is the only time in my personal history that a police officer has taken this great an interest in a neighborhood.  Maybe he'll win some kind of award or something.  Well, maybe he'll at least catch the bike.   And that bad penny or bike or alien ground transport vehicle might just have floated by shortly after the police left.  I am almost positive we saw the bike.  It slowly eased by our house carrying a little old man with a cool Indiana Jones looking hat and a backpack.  He didn't stop.  He did wave and smile.  He rode on down to the end of the street before disappearing again into the teeming hordes of Galveston's tourist industry.  Maybe the bike found a new home.  Or maybe we saw the scandalous interloper and failed to report him to the authorities.  Or maybe we didn't see anything at all.  Maybe it was a vision.  A wisp of sea foam.  A passing cloud of dust from someone still working on their home.  Hmmm.   2 John 3 says, "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love."   Father, once again I'm looking for peace.  I sense myself drifting off again and again into worry – most recently about whether I'll get everything done for the Easter services.  But it's Easter.  Resurrection Day.  You can handle it.  Help me trust that.  Amen.