By Staff Writer Jennifer Grimes

The word change brings a lot of random thoughts to my mind. The change I have in my wallet, for instance.

I don’t care much about it.

I rarely use change unless I’m getting something out of a vending machine, which is next to never. I usually pay with some crisp bills and then dump whatever the cashier hands back into my already accumulated abyss of change. When my wallet gets full, I collect change on my desk or bookshelf in a metal bucket. Change is pretty much forgettable, isn’t it?

I thought so until I used a coin sorter to separate all my change into neat little stacks of joy. Then I took those stacks to the bank and got twenty bucks. Suddenly change was no longer boring or forgettable: it was hidden treasure.

The coin kind of change is, in some ways, like the changes we experience in our lives. We don’t really think about the changes going on around us and in us, but when we stop to collect every moment of change, we’re left with something huge, something a lot like treasure.

For me, this summer has been marked by many small moments of change.

Right before school let out, I got pretty sick. That’s a change for you. Unfortunately, several doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. Every test said I was healthy, but I knew something had to be wrong.

I was really angry that God wouldn’t just take this illness away. I had just graduated from high school and I was planning my freshman year of college. I didn’t have time for this unwelcome change in my health.

In the middle of July—still without a diagnosis—I decided that if I was sick for the rest of my life, God would still be a constant in my life, and I would still trust in Him.

That was a big heart change. Giving up my dreams and my plans was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I did it because I knew and still know that God has a purpose for me. I decided to go ahead with my college plans and prayed that God would help me handle it even though I wasn’t feeling very strong.

Over the past week my health has continued to get better, and I know this is a change only God could author. As I look back over this summer, I know I’ll never be the same, because all of those minor changes added together have become a great change that will forever mark me and make me a better person.

And I’ll never look at a wallet full of coins again without thinking about the change that has made me who I am today.

What about your changes? What has changed this summer that, if you let God work through them, will make you a better person? Feel free to share!

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Jennifer Grimes, 17, lives in Texas. Besides writing, she enjoys hanging out with her family, reading good books, eating chocolate, and sending snail-mail letters. She has recently adopted a stray kitten and learned to crochet. Most importantly, she has devoted her life to Christ and strives every day to serve God boldly.