After the busy holidays and around my birthday, I enjoy breaking away for a few days and glamping (glamorized camping) in a cabin or a yurt in a state park.  (I am perfectly fine with staying in a tent normally, but in January temps are chilly and rainfall likely.)  I always find it wonderfully refreshing to walk out the door of my temporary residence and be surrounded by trees.

Thankfully, a number of Washington state parks allow metal detecting in certain areas, with proper registration.  So my January destinations have been parks with walled accommodations and an openness to metal detecting.  This year I stayed at Kanaskat-Palmer State Park near Enumclaw.

When one metal detects a state park, the good news is that there are a lot of coins lost there.  The bad is that the likeliest finds (besides the usual trash) will be small-value, modern coins – mostly pennies.  But it’s still enjoyable for me, and I always hope to find a few unusual items.  (I always do.  This time, for example, an old fishing reel and a steak knife.  The reel was unusable; the steak knife is.)

The goal is to stumble upon a few older coins (I keep 1960’s and earlier), perhaps a few tokens (Chuck E Cheese are common!), and if truly fortunate, a ring or two.

What one definitely does not expect to uncover is a 100-year-old “Barber” silver dime!  But that’s what happened earlier this week.  (See the picture above.)

I’ve found older coins and more valuable coins in previous hunts.  Whenever I do, I always wonder who lost it and how.  What did the surroundings look like when it happened?  What were the circumstances?  And how much did the loss impact the person?  (Coins carried much more value years ago than they do today.)

But finding this dime where I found it was about as unlikely and unexpected as possible.  It was just a foot-and-a-half off the paved drive, a few inches deep, and it was likely there or near there for almost 100 years.

Which absolutely intrigues me.  How did it get there?

You see, Kanaskat-Palmer State Park came into being in 1983 – just 40 years ago.  That’s 72 years after this coin was minted! 

Rafters and kayakers have been coming to the area long before the park was formed, since the Green River which flows through the park offers some of the best rapids in the area (class II – class IV).  Was it dropped by a “river rat” early in the century when he or she stumbled through the woods carrying their kayak to the river?

There’s also a rich history of mining in the immediate area.  Both coal and cinnabar (the base ore for mercury) were extracted in the region.  Did a miner happen to live nearby, and the coin popped out of his pocket?

Or maybe it was a logger, who in his exertions of cutting down a mighty cedar or Douglas fir, accidentally knocked the coin from his clothes?

Perhaps it was dropped by a hunter or fisherman, working his way through the forest seeking food for the family? 

Just before the turn of the last century, the Northern Pacific Railway opened a new rail line through the area, with Kanaskat serving as a water stop and scale for the steam-powered locomotives of the time.  The trains carried coal and logs harvested from the area.  Did an engineer take a walk in the woods, pull out his handkerchief and dislodge the dime with it?

I suppose another possibility is that someone in more modern times had the old coin in his or her vehicle for some reason, and inadvertently (and undoubtedly with great regret!) somehow transferred the dime from inside the truck to outside it.

We’ll never know how that “Barber” ended up in the soil at the state park where, with God’s blessing, I happened to uncover it.  But it is definitely one of the most unexpected treasures I have ever found.

As I reflected upon this remarkable discovery, it occurred to me that just as the Lord blessed me with uncovering that coin, so he inevitably blesses all his children with unexpected treasures. 

There are various ways this occurs.  One of the most common is through his Word.  I know you have experienced this.  You are reading the Bible or a devotional, listening to a sermon, a Bible study discussion or a Christian song … and there it is!  An unanticipated insight, a profound assurance, an extraordinary comfort supplied out-of-the-blue by the Holy Spirit.  That’s unexpected treasure!

Which only underscores how important it is that we are frequently hearing God’s truths. The more we hear, the more treasures the Lord shares with us.

Another way this plays out is in our lives in general.  I’m confident you have experienced this as well.  We are simply “doing life” when God sends us a precious moment.  We weren’t looking for it; it just happens.  And we recognize that this is something extraordinarily special.  Perhaps a tender moment with a loved one, a chance encounter with someone we haven’t seen in years, or an exceptional experience – a miracle even.  And there it is – another unexpected treasure.

How very blessed we are to have a loving God who gifts us with unexpected treasures here on earth! 

And just wait.  There’s the greatest of unexpected treasures still ahead of us.  Yes, you are expecting it, but heaven’s treasures are beyond our wildest expectations!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Isaiah 45:3
I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

Matthew 13:44
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.