The Poor Widow

Mark 12:41-44

And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums.  And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.  And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.  For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

A couple of months ago, my son Samuel got a $5 bill from his grandma. Actually, all of the kids received a cash gift from her that day. While they were all chatting about what they were going to buy with their money, Samuel looked at me and said, “Mom, I want to take this to church for the kids in Haiti. They don’t even have clean water to drink.”

This is the passage that I thought of when he told me that. $5 will not make a dent in repairing Haiti’s water problems. But that is not what mattered about the gift. He gave all that he had, with a happy heart.

Pray today that when faced with an opportunity to be generous, we are able to do so with joy and humility.