3. The Power of Giving
The Bible contains a number of stories about generosity, and these accounts cover a whole spectrum of giving – ranging all the way from a few cents' worth of small change to the sacrificed life of the Son of God himself. These stories also show a vital fact – that whatever the size of the gift, it can often make a great difference.
The Biggest Little Gift News media occasionally carry stories about very rich people making extensive philanthropic gifts to charity – sometimes in amounts of millions or even billions of dollars. But what would you think if you heard of a pitifully small amount of cash given to a good cause that ended up outweighing even the greatest donations of the very rich? We see exactly this situation in the biblical story of the poor widow who gave out of her extreme poverty:
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on." (Mark 12:41–44 and see also Luke 21:1–4) There is more to this small story than meets the eye. The Gospels tell how the poor widow contributed two small "lepta" – the smallest coins in ancient Judea – to the temple treasury, so the gift was certainly a small one. Now we know that in one way the woman's gift was more than everyone else had given because she gave more proportionately, giving all she had. Jesus confirmed that in this way the sacrifice sometimes speaks louder than the size of the gift, and even the smallest act of generosity is valuable in God's eyes. But the woman's tiny gift was also perhaps literally more than all the others had given that day. How could this be? The widow's tiny coins may have been insignificant of themselves, but they have inspired generations of Christians to give for over two thousand years. In fact, the total amount given as a result of that small gift may well be many times more than all the money cast into the temple treasury through all of the temple's history.
Think about the rain. When one or two tiny droplets fall, they join with others and become larger and they also bump and jostle other droplets into falling, too. But sometimes even a single drop of rain feeds a tiny seedling and makes a difference. Our small efforts may do likewise. Even if our giving does not result in a rainstorm of similar actions, it may still have an effect.
A number of biblical stories show that those who are recorded as having made a powerful gift often had developed the practice of giving over time. Such biblical accounts show men and women of God giving not only of their possessions, but also of their time, their energy, and even, when necessary, their very lives. Those who have given this ultimate gift have often done so by following the words of Jesus: "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13). Usually, however, people do not suddenly give to such a great extent without having learned and developed the practice of generosity over time. Yet such is the power of giving that it becomes an established part of a person's being – to where even ultimate giving becomes possible.
The Ultimate Gift During the Second World War, Polish priest Maximilian Kolbe was arrested by the Nazi authorities for sheltering Jews and Polish refugees and helping them to escape from German-occupied territory. Kolbe was sent to the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp and what he would do there was based on many years of giving and serving.
When one of the prisoners disappeared from the concentration camp, the Nazi officer in charge ordered his men to pick ten other prisoners to be starved to death in order to deter further escape attempts. One of the ten men chosen, Franciszek Gajowniczek, a Polish army sergeant, begged for his life on the grounds that he had a wife and children. At this point, Kolbe stepped forward in Christian love and offered to take Gajowniczek's place. Surprisingly, the Nazi officer granted the request, and Kolbe was locked in a cell with the other doomed prisoners. Each day in the cell Kolbe led prayer, sang hymns, and encouraged the other starving prisoners. After two weeks only Kolbe remained alive. Because the cell was needed for other use, on 14 August 1941 he was given a lethal injection in order to make the cell available. According to an eyewitness Kolbe raised his arm and calmly waited for the injection without fear, evidently glad that he had given all he had to give.
Kolbe's selfless gift of life naturally had a great impact on the man whose life he had saved. The grateful man did much to spread the story of Kolbe's gift, and in 1994, when Gajowniczek visited the United States, he stressed that "so long as he ... has breath in his lungs, he would consider it his duty to tell people about the heroic act of love by Maximilian Kolbe." Gajowniczek died at the age of 93 after a long life in which his often-told story affected and influenced countless other people for good.
For most of us, our giving lies somewhere between that of the rich who may give without noticing any loss, and that of the poor widow and the priest who gave everything they had. But all of us have the opportunity to learn to utilize the extraordinary power of giving in our lives – and perhaps to give more – wherever we may be on the spectrum of generosity at this point in time.