That Which We Will Never Miss

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Scripture
 
Luke 21:1   He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury;  2 he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.  3 He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them;  4 for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

Observation

Jesus pointed out the significance of the woman’s gift. “God measures not so much the size of the gift as of what remains to the owner after it has been given.” (New Bible Commentary) Her contribution was given in faithful obedience to God. Too often we give away that which we will never miss. 

Application

This is a season for giving and the opportunities simply abound. There is the food drive at work, or the local church which stirs our heart. We go to the pantry and find the canned food items which may be close to, or out of date and put them in a bag to give away. We quite literally make giving a process in which we clean out that which we don’t want and give it away to someone else. In the meantime it’s no sacrifice to us because we will never miss it!

The same happens when there is a clothing drive. Searching our closets we clean out the items that are looking a bit worn, are a little too tight to wear, or are extremely outdated and we package them up to give to the needy. There is no sacrifice in giving away things that we don’t want in the first place.

Faithfulness and obedience requires sacrificial generosity. God doesn’t want our left-overs, he wants there to be nothing left-over because we give our all to Christ. The widow's gift reflected the love of God and our sacrifices are to reflect God’s great gift to us.

Prayer

Lord, may your spirit of generosity fill our hearts to overflowing for others. Amen.


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