Jesus Knew the Worth of a Penny - Day 35

Jesus and his disciples are sitting opposite the treasury, which was either a special room in the temple or a collection box in the outer courts. Rich folks are coming in and letting everyone know how much they are putting in. People praise them. They are feeling pretty good about themselves. There is probably some preening and strutting and grandstanding and competing going on.
In the midst of all this, a poor widow silently walks through the crowd and puts two small copper coins, worth about a penny, into the box. Jesus then said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have 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)
Jesus knew the worth of a penny. For Jesus it was not the size of the gift that mattered. What mattered was the size of the commitment, the size of the sacrifice, the size of the generosity. And the woman out-gave them all. Hands-down. If Jesus were running a church I hope he would have made her the stewardship-chair.
I once met this poor widow’s “granddaughter.” She had made some “bad” choices in her life. She was on welfare. She was living in subsidized housing. We, the church, were constantly helping her, moving her, taking care of her children, bailing her out of trouble. She was a High-Grace-Required-Person. But she was also our most generous giver. She tithed. Yep. Right-off-the-top. No strings. No questions. No equivocations. No excuses. Ten percent. I had her give her testimony one year and her words touched more hearts, more pledges, more checkbooks than any other talk I have ever witnessed.
It would be easy for anyone of us to say to ourselves, “Well, she could give more because she had less to give.” Careful. Do you really want to say that even to yourself? Remember that Jesus stands outside the treasury of your own heart.
Jesus knew the worth of a penny. He knew that the poor widow’s penny represented a true gift, a sacrificial gift, a generous gift, a heart-gift.
I had written above that, “if Jesus were running a church I hope he would have made her the Stewardship-chair.” But, of course, Jesus is supposed to be running a church. The church is his church. And he did make this woman if not the stewardship chair, then the stewardship example for us all. Jesus knew the worth of her penny. Do we know and share and worth of our own?