Giving and Widow’s Mite
Reflection
“And Jesus saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins.” LK 21:2 Scripture puts a tremendous value on the idea of giving! In NT it is treated some 417 times! The Greek word is didomai. An easy way to remember this inspired Greek word is “dido”!
Most of us probably don’t think we have that much to give in the way of material wealth or talent. In the eyes of the world, the widow was among the poorest and least educated in society! But Jesus declared she gave more than the wealthy and highly esteemed of society! Her gift to Temple was two leptons, which were like the smallest coins worth a few cents, a fraction of a day’s wages! But for her, it was everything she had to live on! In Greek, “ton bion” means “my whole living”! The value of our gift is not how much money it is worth, but the cost to the giver. A small child fixing breakfast for her mother’s birthday might be awful, but the love behind it is precious to her mother!
Our abilities are pitiful in God’s eyes but beautiful to His Heart! But God’s gifts to us are far more priceless than we can imagine! Everything we have is a gift from God, our life, our talents, the people in our life! Above all, our relationship with God is the most priceless gift of all. “See what sort of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children “tekvov” of God; and such we are! 1 John 3:1 “Teknon” is the word of the closest relationship of a child to an adult, and in this case with God Himself!
Our whole life is a gift of the incomparable love of God! This love of God for us was very costly to Him and His Son, Jesus! God, without any cost to Himself, could make us all multi-millionaires. But He loved us far greater than we could ever envision by sending His Only Begotten Son to us!
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
That His Son suffered for love of us was something God could never do except He took on our human nature! This is the ultimate giving of His inconceivable love for Us! “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13
