Penny for Your Thoughts

It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 

– 3 John 3

The U.S. Treasury minted about 540 billion Lincoln pennies between the coin’s 1909 introduction and the series’ end in November 2025. And nearly each one features the motto In God We Trust inscribed by Honest Abe’s profile. 

You’ll also see the phrase E Pluribus Unum — Latin for Out of many, one — on the penny’s flip side. An early motto of the United States, it’s a reminder that our nation was born when the 13 Colonies united behind the common cause of liberty. The Founding Fathers from Massachusetts often clashed politically and socially with their compatriots from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia. But they set aside their many differences to write the Declaration of Independence, win the Revolutionary War, and eventually ratify the Constitution.

Here’s where the Bible lesson comes in: The Church — meaning all Christ-followers on Earth — is also an entity that’s marked by distinct differences. Believers come from various religious traditions and have a broad range of preferences regarding worship music and sermon style. Likewise, the Church is also a place where all races are welcome and present. It mingles the rich, the poor, and the middle class. But what unites them all — or at least should bring them together — is a common faith and focus on Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Shortly before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prayed to his Father (God) about the Church — and not just his original followers, but also Believers like you and me in the centuries to follow: 

"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Christ’s prayer for his followers’ unity links the dusty streets of 1st century Israel with the crowded superhighways of modern North America and Europe … and everywhere in between. Moreover, it’s a reminder that Believers were never meant to go through life alone. Instead, we’re to gather regularly to share our joys, troubles, triumphs — and even doubts — all to strengthen our walks of faith. We’re also secure in God’s love, so there’s no need to compete for recognition or control. And that means we can use what we have to strengthen others … and help God’s work flourish. 

As Believers united in Jesus, we’re indeed one out of many. And it’s also in God we must trust.