A Certain Poor Widow

“And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.”

Luke 21:1-4

We don’t know the name of this widow woman, and we know very little else about her. I suppose that she would have preferred for it to be so. What we do know is that she got the attention of Jesus that day and that he brought her to the attention of others. In this short passage we have the opportunity to look through the eyes of God. Let us do so….

We see that God is not impressed with the amount of things that we have, whether it be money, talent, energy, time, opportunity, or a host of other things. But we see that God’s attention is turned to what we give back to him out of what we do have.

Often, a resident of the care facility where I preach and teach will ask me, “What am I here for? What good am I to anyone?”. Sometimes they will look up at me and say something like, “Why doesn’t God just let me die?” My heart breaks for them. I wish they would be willing to look through the eyes of God, for then they would not say such things. May God open the eyes of someone who is in this sorrowful situation today.

“For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.”

II Corinthians 8:12

A Pastor once told me: “God is not so much interested in our ability as he is in our availability.”

It only took a little boy with a few fishes and loaves to feed thousands, but all of it was put into God’s hands first.

What got the attention of Jesus Christ on this particular day was that this poor woman gave all that she had. And God has sealed the following in his eternal record: all that she gave (although it appeared to be very little) was more than all that the rich men had given. He did not say “it was as if it was more”, he said plainly that it was more - more than all that they cast in. What God got that day was the whole heart of this poor woman and nothing less. What God did with this was to inspire millions of people by her example in the centuries that followed. What God can do with just one person who gives their whole heart to God is more than what he will do with all of the combined riches of everyone in this world who has not given their whole heart to God.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

Romans 12:1

My friend, if you have been saved by the righteousness of Jesus Christ through your childlike faith in him then you have been saved by the most precious thing in all of the universe - the blood of God. To give all of yourself back to God who gave everything for you is not extraordinary – it is only reasonable.

One Sunday, after a pastor had preached a message on giving, he noticed one little girl who had stayed behind when the rest of the people had left. She was standing alone with her eyes closed and when the pastor walked up to her he noticed that she was standing in the middle of an offering plate that had been laid upon the floor. When he asked her what she was doing, she smiled the innocent smile of a child and said:

“I am offering myself to God.”

I believe that this little girl got the attention of Jesus that day.

The day is not yet over.

Let us also offer all of ourselves to God and see what he will do with us.