Luke 21:1-4, “And Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.”

Jesus is sitting in the Temple, watching people. On this occasion, He has positioned Himself to see who gives how much in the offering. That intrigues me because it tells me how much we give is important to Jesus. The difference, however, is that Jesus has a different measuring system than we do. If the Temple Priest were keeping a record of who gave what, they almost certainly would not have been impressed with what this woman gave. It only amounted to one penny. They probably scoffed when she dropped her two small coins in the bag. It barely made a jingle. But according to Jesus, she gave the largest offering of them all.

Jesus said this woman gave everything she had, which means she had no money left to buy food to eat when she left the Temple. This was a huge step of faith on her part. Her offering was probably ignored on earth, but it jingled in heaven.

This story reminds me of the widow woman in 1 Kings chapter 17. The day had come when she was about to prepare a meal with the last of the food she had. She and her son were going to eat it, and in her mind, they would die because there was no more food. They probably had not eaten much for several days as she watched the dwindling supply of food. I’m sure they were both hungry. As she was getting things ready, the Prophet Elijah stopped by and asked for a cup of water, which she gladly gave. But then, Elijah asked her to cook him a meal. She knew she only had enough food to prepare one more meal for herself and her son. Can you imagine the struggle that must have been going on inside her heart? But she took a giant leap of faith and fed the Prophet. You know the rest of the story. God promised and delivered an unending supply of meal and oil.

Sometimes, our faith is put to the test. In the case of the woman in Luke 21, no one asked her to give all she had, but in 1 Kings 17, the Prophet did ask her to give all she had. The Bible doesn’t tell us the end of the story from Luke 21, but I’m convinced that since Jesus saw and acknowledged her gift, she had all the provision she needed when she left the Temple. The key is to give willingly and obediently when God moves on our heart.