Connor Halsa, with his father and cousin, were out on Lake of the Woods, Minnesota, on a fishing expedition. They intended to catch walleye, but instead they hooked a fat wallet!
Connor had cast his line when he felt something big on the other end. Setting the hook hard and reeling in quickly, he pulled up a big brown billfold out of the water. Opening it, they found a lot of mossy, soggy money totaling $2,000! In with the money was a business card with a name and number on it. Connor and the others instantly agreed that they should return the money to the rightful owner, so they called the number on the card.
It turned out that the money belonged to a farmer in Iowa, Jim Denny, who lived 600 miles from Moorhead, Minnesota, where Connor and his family lived. Thrilled to hear that the lost wallet had been found, Jim came to Moorhead to retrieve the lost cash. Though he offered Connor a reward, he refused it, saying, “We didn’t really work hard for the money. He did, so it was his money.”
Losing His Money
But how had Jim Denny managed to lose $2,000 at the bottom of the lake? He explained that he had been on a fishing retreat over a year ago. He had put the wallet in his back pocket and went out to the lake in a boat to fish. The water was quite rough and choppy that day, and as he sat on the back of the boat, he was jostled back and forth. He figured that the wallet had wiggled its way out of his pocket and into the water. He did not realize that it was missing until he had to pay for his stay at the resort. Much to his immense embarrassment, they extended credit for his stay there.
Of course, John Denny was very appreciative and grateful to Connor and his family for their honesty in returning the wallet to him! Since they wouldn’t take any money, Jim gave Connor a fancy, personalized cooler and took the family out to dinner. He also gave Connor a compliment: “I would take Connor for a grandson any day, and I would fight for him any day.”
Reporters, newscasters, John Denny and Connor’s family all took a moment to contemplate the near mathematical impossibility of the wallet being found. Lake of the Woods is a HUGE lake! It is a million-acre lake, the sixth largest freshwater lake in the U.S. It is 70 miles long and 70 miles wide. It is half the size of Yellowstone National Park and 210 feet deep in places. Jim Denny marveled, saying, “The odds of ever, EVER, finding a billfold in there, hooking a billfold in 20 feet of water ... I don’t think there would be a number.”
A Miracle of Grace
Despite the odds, it was possible, and Connor’s hook did pierce the hide of the small billfold. And so it is with us. We were far from God, separated by our trespasses and sins. Many people feel that their case is a hopeless one! They feel that they have sinned too deeply and too long, sunken in drugs, alcohol, immorality or some other vice. Many are looking in all the wrong places for peace and happiness, such as New Ageism, paganism and spiritism. They feel that forgiveness of their sins, peace with God and the certainty of an afterlife in heaven are impossibilities for them.
If this is the case with you, there is hope, mercy and peace available to you, if you will accept it. The Bible tells us, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear” (Isaiah 59:11Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: (Isaiah 59:1)). The love of God is even able to break a heart of stone! “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:2626A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)).
As impossible as it may seem, it is possible to have peace with God. It is through His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. “There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). God sent His beloved Son Jesus to come down to this earth and to bleed and die on a shameful cross for our sins. Because He was perfect, holy and sinless, God raised Him from the dead on the third day. Now all those that come to God, repenting of their sins and realizing their need of a Savior, can have their sins forgiven. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:1313For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)). “If [you shall] confess with [your] mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in [your] heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, [you shall] be saved” (Romans 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)).
When we come to Him in repentance, having faith in the work that the Lord did on the cross, we will be saved — saved from hell and saved for heaven! God, who cannot lie, says it is so. There is mighty power in the shed blood, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is possible to have peace with God today! His ear will hear the faintest cry, no matter how far away you are in your sins from Him! Do you have peace with God? Can you say that you are “redeemed ... with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19)?
A Judge’s Call gives another important lesson from a strange money story.