Everytime it rains, it rains pennies from heaven (2,000 of ‘em, to be exact)

Monday night I was just getting ready to call my sister (it was raining pretty hard here in the ‘burgh, and my niece & brother-in-law were at the Pirates game getting soaked) when I remembered I hadn’t gotten today’s mail.

I hopped downstairs and retrieved a single white envelope with no return address. When I opened the letter inside, a twenty dollar bill fluttered to the ground. What the—someone sent me $20.00. Who sent it and why?

I’m sharing it here, because I don’t want my benefactor thinking I saw the cash and just tossed their words aside.

I read it alright, a couple times, in fact. And I still can’t believe it.

A couple weeks ago, I shared a story here regarding a woman on Facebook who was handed a designer handbag from a pair of strangers and saw it as a gift from God. I scoffed at the notion of “divine bling” and said that religious & non-religious people were never going to convince each other that their way is the truth, but for $20.00 this agnostic was willing to listen. And someone took me up on it!

Here’s the letter that came with the $20.00; click on it to enlarge to full size

“I read your recent blog about the woman and her Coach wristlet and was a bit puzzled about a few of your remarks…”

It then goes on to ask me a lot of questions—if I’m truly agnostic why did I have such strong reactions to this woman’s story, would I react just as strongly to an atheist, can I discount the intelligence behind everything, have I read the Bible in it’s entirety, do I expect God (if He exists) to perform in a different way than what I’ve seen for myself, etc.

While the letter made me feel like I was on the witness stand in some holy courtroom (I sure am glad I wasn’t around for the Inquisition!) I couldn’t help but appreciate that someone did read my blog and felt compelled to reach out. I mean, c’mon--I’m just one of 10 billion other yahoos on this planet. My personal views don’t amount to a hill of beans!

Well Mystery Writer, if you really want to know—maybe I shouldn’t have used the term “agnostic” to describe myself. I thought I needed a label and that was the closest I could find that fits. I’m not filled with uncertainty, I DO believe in a higher, intelligent design—amd I see nothing random about our universe either.

I just don’t feel the need to attach my beliefs to a Supreme Being who demands I worship Him. Why do you? Why does anybody?

Does that make me an atheist then? Gosh I hope not, the ones I know are the most closed-minded people I know!


I will say this; if the woman who wrote about that Coach purse saw my blog and confronted me about it, I’d turn fifty shades of red and apologize.

As it was pointed out to me, it’s not like the recipient was being swindled or anything. If she really believes that pricey gift was her deceased brother reaching out to her, I’m sure it’s a very comforting feeling.

And finally, I wanted to let my benefactor know that while I appreciate their $20.00 gift, there is NO WAY I’m keeping that! I wrote a check out this morning for that amount to send to my favorite charity, the Salvation Army.

They’re a Christian based outfit, but I’m not going to hold that against ‘em