Mike was exhausted—working long hours at a grocery store just to scrape by. His mother, Kaila, was getting sicker, and the bills were stacking up faster than he could open them. Each day felt like a losing battle. One evening, as he sat in their dim apartment, overwhelmed, his eyes landed on a dusty box in the corner. Inside was the old Bible his grandmother Grace had left him in her will—along with a cryptic note:

“Open it when it’s hard.” He hadn’t spoken to her in the months before she died. Their last conversation had ended in a fight—Mike had refused to go to church, and she’d walked out of his life. When she passed, she left everything to her church… except for that Bible. At the time, it felt like punishment. But tonight, feeling broken, he opened it. As he flipped through the worn pages,something fell out—two crisp $100 bills. Then more. Hidden between the verses were thousands of dollars in cash, enough to pay off his mother’s hospital bills. Grace had planned this all along,
knowing he’d need it when he was ready—not just financially, but emotionally. Mike broke down in tears. She hadn’t punished him. She’d never stopped loving him. Her final gift was wrapped in the very faith she’d tried to share with him. That money saved Kaila’s life. Over the next few months, Mike found new purpose—cutting back on work, enrolling in school, and slowly, starting to believe again. Grace hadn’t just left him money. She left him hope.