Here in Savannah is the 1790 Inn, originally built as a boarding house, today considered by many the most haunted B&B in the US with a restaurant and tavern down below. The owner is a retired Methodist minister, they don't come any nicer. He tells the story that when they first bought the B&B they used to find shiny pennies everywhere. Upstairs, downstairs, kitchen, tavern. Sometimes two but usually one. There was a story about an orphaned servant boy in the boarding house who used to save his pennies. He said he had a group of young girls in the inn and was telling them the story of the pennies and said to them, "when we first bought the inn we took out a million dollar mortgage. You'd think the little boy could leave us quarters!" Right after that the pennies stopped and the quarters started. Be very careful what you ask for in this world. You may get exactly what you asked for. A guy on my tour last night told me he and his wife had discussed receiving a specific amount of money before they would consider starting a family. His younger brother suddenly passed away leaving an insurance policy paying that exact amount. As for me, I always wanted a nice big house. One day it dawned on me I had a nice big house, I was the caretaker. I started rewording my wishes and did move into a nice big house of my own. Be very, very careful what you ask for. Now I always ask for something followed by the statement "under grace and in perfect ways". It seems to cover all the bases and that's my sermon for this Sunday.
