Wednesday: The Widow’s Mite
WEEK 49
WEDNESDAY
THE WIDOW’S MITE
Mark 12:41-44
We are dealing with the mastery of perfectionism. We have seen that the way to overcome perfectionism is to be willing to do the next thing at hand and do it well. This passage expresses that attitude: “Do whatever you would like to do, because God is with you” (1 Sam. 10:7). In other words, don’t wait for special guidance to do special things; but do the thing at hand and do it in God’s name, for God is with you. For whatever you do, you’ll do it under divine guidance; for God is with you, guiding you to do the little things in a big way.
I have received many gifts in my life, gifts that have been undeserved and that have moved me. But the smallest gift ever received had the greatest significance, the gift of a “widow’s mite.” It was from the wife of the president of a large international bank. She had a coin collector watch the coin auctions for a year until he found an authentic “widow’s mite”—the coin the widow threw into the treasury—her all. Jesus, seeing it, said she had given more than all the rich throwing in their gifts. This coin was minted in the year 76 BCE and has eight rays on one side and an anchor on the other, the smallest copper coin in use at that time. Just the tossing in of a copper coin was a small event, yet two thousand years later we are looking for that coin, or a similar one, for it had deep significance; out of her love for God she threw in her all. The little became the big, for it was big with meaning (see Mark 12:41-44).
That is the atmosphere of the early Christians. They were doing little things in a big way. And we can’t forget them. Eternal meaning was in every single happening. Their actions were seed actions. The group at Antioch “laid their hands on Barnabas and Saul and sent them off” (Acts 13:3), and lo, we feel today the impact of this smallest of acts. If it hadn’t happened, we and our whole civilization would have been different. It was a “widow’s mite” of an act that was big with destiny. Nothing is small when it is done in Christ and for him.
O Christ, you began as a babe, and you have ended on the throne of the universe. Help me not to despise my Nazareths, for they too may be big with destiny. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Since every happening today may be big with eternal meaning, so I shall do everything as unto Christ.