God reminds me of His presence through one-sen coins: a brief reflection.
One of the questions that Christians frequently ask themselves is: how do I know God is there? How do we know He is overviewing my life, following what is going on with me?
I have a healthy scepticism towards signs and wonders. As a “banana” (yellow – Chinese/Asian on the outside, white – western-educated on the inside), I am sufficiently aware of the dichotomy of living with one foot in either “world”. As a Chinese Malaysian/Asian, I am not alien to the culture of spirits. Chinese/Asian folklore is replete with stories of ghosts and spirits, of mediums and trances. The colloquial language of Asia also has many idiomatic expressions which encapsulate this form of spiritual experience. As a predominantly western-educated and western-outlooked individual, I am also in touch with the secular humanist train of thought which has more or less excluded or discounted the world of the supernatural. (Note: “supernatural” comes from the Latin “supra natura”, which literally means “above nature”.)
So when I first found one-sen coins on the road, I thought nothing of it. I mean, we find all sorts of things on the road, least of all one-sen coins. Most people would say, and I too would agree, that this is pure coincidence.
I can’t pinpoint when God began to use this as a means of assuring me of His presence in my life. It’s just that I would be walking along the road (and I do a fair bit of walking as I choose not to drive) and having a quiet conversation with God about things that are happening. In the days before hands-free handsets people would think I was mad, talking to myself. Now people just assume I am talking on the mobile telephone via a hands-free device. Anyway I would be thinking and talking and wondering whether I was just talking out loud to myself or talking to God when I would stumble upon a one-sen coin. Initially I made no connection. Then gradually each time I talked to God, or each time I struggled with some issue whilst walking to or from work or to or from an appointment, I would invariably find a one-sen coin. I began to associate it with God reminding me that He was there, listening.
Some of you will now think that I have totally lost the plot. And I would not fault you. It is very easy to “spiritualise” an otherwise not uncommon experience. Ask a mathematician and he would probably tell you that the chances of finding a one-sen coin on a Malaysian road or footpath is not necessarily low. So why should it be given this other-worldly association.
I would have left it at that save for one incident a few months back. I was doing my usual walking and thinking and talking to God (or just out loud, depending on your viewpoint) and looking at the ground when I once again came across a one-sen coin. A Malaysian one-sen coin. Nothing bizarre or odd, you might say. No, except that this was on the side of a road in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. Yes, yes, I can rationalise how it got there, courtesy of the many Myanmar nationals working in Malaysia, returning home and dropping Malaysian coin currency generously on the road-side. But just at that particular point in time, when I was talking to God, in a foreign country?
Simply because something can be logically explained is no reason to deprive an experience of its possible deeper significance. Take giving birth, for example. OK, I know it is not something that I have personally experienced. We all know how babies happen, how they come to be. But that does not make the miracle of birth any less wonderful. Trust me, I have 3 urban urchins to prove it.
I look ahead with some regret that we appear to be slowly phasing out the use of one-sen coins. Will this mean that God will no longer assure me of His presence in my life? Hardly, I think. Perhaps He will now just have to use higher denominations!
Postscript: I wrote this article on 13 August 2008. On 14 August 2008 I flew out to Chiangmai from the LCCT. While waiting to board the plane I mentally went through the article again, reflecting further on it. Then I made my way from the boarding gate to the plane. As I was walking, I came across a 20 sen coin along the walkway to the plane. God definitely was listening, and He clearly has a sense of humour.
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