Yesterday morning I stopped at one of the coffee shops at which I am a regular. Standing in line,I tried to remember the number of properties found on a Monopoly board. 23? 28? 35? 52? The correct answer could buy me 10 cents off my over-priced cup of coffee. I soon became distracted by the two shop workers and the woman in front of me who were looking intently at the dollar bill they all three were holding. They were feeling the texture of the bill, turning it first this way and then the other. One took in her hands and held it to the light. My curiosity getting the best of me, I stepped closer to see what the mystery was. 

Noting that the customer had handed the cashier three one dollar bills, I heard her say: "It says 'this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private' ". I then asked if she had been carrying a counterfeit bill. She turned with a smile to me and simply said, "Look." As I did I saw that the green dollar bill looked exactly like the other two she had handed over. The difference was that instead of the wooden face of our nation's first president, there was the face of a lovely angel, wings, halo and all. Now four people were examining the bill. She tried to remember where she might have received the money, what she had purchased last that would have rendered this one dollar bill as change from a larger denomination. As we stood in our little circle staring down at what was certainly not 'legal tender' in the monetary sense, our faces were shining happiness and warmth toward one another. We all felt a part of something out of the ordinary, special, that had just happened without any effort on our part. 

Taking the angel dollar back and saying she would take it to her bank, she handed over the real money and received her coffee. I stepped up in line and placed my order. But the experience of that encounter changed the course of my day. Because of the surprise of this angel currency, I had encountered a moment of mystery with three strangers. We had laughed, talked, and questioned together. The experience only lasted a few minutes but it put a spring in my step all day and helped me to breathe deeper, more fully.

I cannot know the intention of whomever created the angel dollar bill. Perhaps it was sinister. Perhaps it was meant to trick people into spending money that had no value. But for me, for the four strangers who spoke on a normal Tuesday morning, I believe we had a different experience. We were somehow connected in a way that suspended us from all the things we believe to be fact and concrete. In the simplest form of a dollar bill , something else showed up, something that made us wonder and brought joy and laughter, and made us question the things we take for granted.

Angels are said to be the messengers of God. Their wings allow them to move from place to place with the freedom of flying and with ease of earthly effort. Their halos ring their heads with light to show the path toward what is of heaven. As the angel took her place in the center of George Washington's frame, that presence brought a lightness of being to those of us who gazed at her. A moment of transcendence or of trickery? I don't know. But I am sure that my day would have been different if I had not had this encounter.

"I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared." Exodus 23:20