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As a single parent of two there have been times when I didn’t know how I was going to pay the bills, the rent and car repairs and still be able to feed my family. We couldn’t afford some of the things we wanted. We never went on big vacations. We lived in an apartment and I drove an old car that needed repairs often. Some would see us as poor.
The funny thing was that at the end of the month somehow everything got paid for and we were never hungry. I never thought of us as poor. I always thought we were blessed. I knew it wasn’t anything I did that got us through the month.
This summer my daughter went on a mission trip to Mexico with our youth group. Twenty American kids were introduced to a family of five that actually lives on $50 a week. They were there to build a two-room house for this family whose home was a shelter made of scraps of wood and anything else they could find. Some people would see this family as poor.
What made a lasting impression on each one of those teenagers? Every day the father went to the local store and bought them all sodas for lunch because he wanted to do something to show his gratitude. That’s true generosity. This man is not poor.
Jesus once pointed out a widow who put all she had into the temple offering. We don’t know her name. Some people only saw a poor widow.
By one simple ordinary act, without knowing it, she was immortalized in God’s word as a lesson to Jesus’ disciples.
Why did He call His followers over to watch as a poor widow presented her offering? I think it was because He saw so much in her beyond the lack of material possessions. He saw her courage in putting in all she had. He saw her faith and obedience in giving to the work of the temple as God commanded. He saw her love and devotion in offering what she had willingly, not out of a sense of duty. He was able to see into her heart and He liked what He saw.
Generosity. Courage. Trust. Devotion. Obedience. These are characteristics that Jesus wants to develop in all of His followers. He wanted His disciples then and now to see that it’s not material things that make us rich or poor, but our character. It’s not the outside that counts, but what’s in the heart.
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