Manna From Heaven as a $5 bill

Many people ask why I have a $5 bill on my gratitude frame. I really enjoy telling them this story.

While going through my divorce, I had limited finances and mostly ate salads and fruit in my diet. Finding those items expensive on my limited budget, I contacted a local store and asked what they did with their older produce when the newer shipments came in. The answer was that they would sell it for a few dollars a box to the pig farmers.

I asked if I could buy them for a few dollars a box to feed my “little pigs.” They told me it wasn’t for human consumption but once it was out the door, they couldn’t control where it went. So, for a few years, I would check the store once a week or so and buy a box of produce for a few dollars.

We would get a box of pineapple, or mangoes etc. Most of the time, the fruit was in great condition because they had just gotten a new shipment and exchanged it for the fruit that was on the shelf. So, in the morning, I would buy the old, in the afternoon, I would buy the new. That is weird that in the morning I would pay $3 for a pineapple and in the afternoon, that same pineapple was $3 a box.

I would take the fruit and dehydrate it. I would always “pay it forward” or “pay tithes” on the fruit I would get by sharing some with those who helped me in some way or welcoming in new friends to the neighborhood. We enjoyed trying new fruits dehydrated that would normally be too expensive to dry; kiwi, pineapple, mango, papaya, coconut, different melons and some different vegetables as well. jicama, yams, sweet potatoes, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes and others turned out to be quite good dehydrated in slices with salt on them. Dried, they taste similar to a potato chip.

I have a strawberry stem on my gratitude frame as one day, my daughter said, “I wish we had some strawberries.” That day, I went to the store and we ended up with two flats full of strawberries. I dehydrated those as well.

Fast forward a few years. I no longer needed the fruit and had since heard that someone sued the store chain because they got sick eating some “bad fruit” which seemed to me a shame and a set up. However, since being sued the store would no longer sell its older fruit. I was driving to the bank and it is across from the store where I used to get the fruit.

I said a prayer of gratitude in my heart that while I needed help in that way the Lord provided a way for our family to have the fruits and veggies we needed at a price I could afford and that it was available to me while we needed it. I turned the corner and floating in front of me in the air fluttering to the ground was a $5 bill. I pulled the car to a stop, I didn’t have to get out, it landed next to the car.

I opened my door and pulled in the brand new crisp $5 bill and said to the kids in the back, “Look kids, Manna from Heaven!” They then asked me what “Manna” was and I then told them what manna was and about my prayer and how I felt it was the Lords way of telling me that he would always provide if I continued to honor him and give gratitude. He can send Manna or Money from heaven.


I pulled into the bank and no one had “lost it” and so it was my gift from God. I went on to run errands and ran into someone I knew and was telling them about my “manna” from heaven and they said, “Did you go to the dairy and buy everyone an ice cream with it?” I told them “No, It won’t ever be spent. It is my Manna from God and a reminder to me that he will always provide as long as I do my part.”

So, the $5 is at the top of my gratitude frame in a place of honor. The $5 means nothing but what it represents to me is priceless.

What “Manna” does God bless you with?