My Copper Coins

I was awe-struck once again when reading the account of the widow's offering in Mark 12:

"And he (Jesus) 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.” Mark 12:41-44

The reason for my delight in this passage is the simple concept of the relationship between poverty and abundance of giving. I think that one can reasonably extrapolate to the broader principle that we are all "poor" in something: money, time, energy, intellect, power, influence, and on and on and on. But these "lacks" do not impede us from giving our all to God. Whatever little we have, we can give it all and somehow in God's economy it gets multiplied for use in His kingdom. You can't give lots of money to a local prison ministry? Can you spend 44 cents and send a birthday card to a prisoner's little boy? You don't have the physical strength to go on a missions trip to build a new school? Can you pray for those who can and send a box of crayons and markers to the students? You don't have a big enough house to take in a pregnant teenager? Can you partner with your church to send paper goods to the residential center that minsters to young women in need in your hometown?

As Matthew Henry states: "Though we can give but a little in charity, yet if it be according to our ability, and be given with an upright heart, it shall be accepted of Christ, who requires according to what a man has, and not according to what he has not."

I hope that God will help me to determine what my two small copper coins are each day, and then enable me to give them willingly to His work.