Hello ,

George Owen Walton was born on May 15, 1907, in Rocky Mount, Virginia. As an estate appraiser, he had first dibs on rare coins, guns, jewelry, stamps, and books, and he built up quite a collection. When Walton had an opportunity to purchase one of only five 1913 Liberty Head nickels ever minted, he jumped at the chance. He paid $3,750 for the treasure in 1945 and told his family that it was worth a fortune. But after Walton died in a car crash on his way to a coin show in 1962, appraisers surprisingly declared his nickel a fake. They marked it "no value," returned it to the disappointed family, and the coin stayed hidden in a strongbox on the floor of a closet.

Eventually Walton's nephew, Ryan Givens, inherited the nickel. Even though it had been dismissed as a counterfeit, something told him that his uncle was right. In 2003 the other four 1913 Liberty Head nickels went on display, and a million dollar prize was offered to anyone who could produce the fifth. Givens submitted his coin for evaluation once more. After hours of comparing and contrasting against the other four nickels, six expert appraisers announced that Walton's coin was the real deal.

Eventually Givens sold the nickel for $3.1 million-a hundred years after it was originally minted. Imagine a coin worth more than $3 million collecting dust in the back corner of a closet for decades and decades because it seemed worthless, even to expert eyes.*

Imagine, something worth so much being locked away in a dusty closet.  Reading this story reminded me of how important our Bibles are, and how so many people rarely (if ever), read them to find the treasure inside.  God's Word is a life-altering book.  It's important to give our time to reading it, and allowing God to speak to us through its pages.

Have a great day and God bless!

Pastor Mike / The Open Word

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