It’s been a little bit quieter day, Father, but it has been a good day – good worship with Your people, good time with Karen, good weather, good food, and it is good having the comfort that only a relationship with You can give.
Mark 12:41-44 (<<click to read the passage)
When last I wrote I addressed those of us who are guilty of having “an excess of receipts” but are disproportionately deficient in our “disbursements”. But there is most definitely a flip side of the “coin,” if you will.
I simply cannot bypass the widow in Jesus’ story. Upon her heart weighed the importance of supporting God’s temple. That she didn’t have more than the two coins to rub together did not stop her from doing what she could.
I Googled the idea that the poor seem to be more generous than the rich. Oh, there are lots of studies and whatnot – some pretty interesting to listen to – but I found a blog entitled The Generous Poor which started out with a story that exemplified this concept.
The story was of a young father who was truly striving to take care of his family. He had inadvertently ran out of gas and had coasted into a grocery store’s gas station with his toddler and infant in tow. Unfortunately, he had no money on him and he resorted to begging shoppers for a dollar or two so he could get home. He figured he asked about fifty people – and not one person helped him out.
Ironically, a few months earlier he had been at the same gas station and had encountered a homeless man. He had been homeless himself at one point and had compassion for the homeless man. He had just received his $300 weekly pay and had the man grab a cart to get whatever he wanted from the nearby grocery.
Even though his offer was generous, “the homeless man stocked up only about $40 worth of groceries: basics like bread and peanut butter and jelly” stating it would meet his need. The young man marveled at the “thriftiness of the impoverished man.”
The author of the blog then stated:
“I marveled at the paradox of it all: my impoverished friend, who that day had been refused even a few dollars at a grocery store that attracted fairly affluent shoppers, was quick to lavish generosity on a homeless stranger, who in turn received his generosity with exemplary thrift.”
Now the source of the blog is – to my knowledge – not a faith-based organization but doesn’t that story strike to the heart of the matter?
Lord Jesus, may we have hearts like this young man. I don’t even know if he was a believer but he surely lived out Your example in loving others as he loved himself. Again, may we not ignore the “widows” but may we be generous where it counts. Amen.
July 14th, 2019, Sun, 6:09 pm
