A small country church had an appeal for a good cause. The people brought up their gifts. As it happened, among them was a small crippled girl, who hobbled along at the end of the line.

Pulling a ring from her finger, she placed it on the table and made her way back.

Her gesture was noticed by the head usher who said to her, “My dear, I saw what you did. It was beautiful. But the response of the people was so generous that we have enough to take care of our need. We don’t feel right about keeping your ring, so we have decided to give it back to you.”

To his surprise the little girl said no. She said, “You don’t understand. I didn’t give the ring to you. I gave it to God.”

Having arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus is in the temple area teaching and observing. He has been answering various questions and the scribes are confronted about missing the point of all religious practice, which is the love of God and neighbor. You are to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus turns toward a poor widow to show what he is talking about. She gave in spite of her poverty because she wanted to thank God for her blessings. By all appearances her gift was insignificant, but Jesus shows that God uses a different method of accounting than we do.

God does not count how much you put into the offering but how much you still have left for yourself. Like the widow, who gave all she had, her livelihood, Jesus will do exactly the same thing only one week later on the cross. He would give everything he had, sparing nothing, not even his very life for you, me, us.

That self-emptying is a challenge to each of us to give all we have and are, to God, even when we think we have little or nothing to give.

Jesus first warns the crowd to beware of those who manipulate and use others for their own gain. They “devour the houses of widows,” the defenseless, and as a pretext they hide behind whatever will make them look good and excuse them for the wrong they do.

I can’t help but see this observation of Jesus as a description of those who caused and continue to cause the economic devastation which has hurt so many people.

When Jesus first called his disciples, they were not yet willing to take the risk of giving all, no matter what the cost. The disciples tried to talk Jesus out of his passion and death, and in the end, they abandoned him in his hour of need. Jesus, as you know, never abandoned them. Even from the cross he said, “Father forgive them  ... .” In the end, all his disciples gave their lives to him.

The widow was down to her last two coins and she gave them to God. Why?

First of all, the widow was demonstrating that God came first in her life.

In the second place, this widow believed her gift would make a difference. She made God the first priority in her life; she knew that God would use her gift, however small.

And one last thing. Her faithfulness touched others. That’s no small thing. Every time this story is told, her example touches a new generation of believers.