Widow's mite Children's Message

Children’s Message
Sunday, November 5, 2006
The Widow’s Mite (Mark 12:38-44)

Little can be huge, and, sometimes, huge hardly matters at all.

It is a story that we hear time and time again. We all know about stories of the little guy doing great things, like “The Little Engine that Could”, but the Bible also has stories of little things that make a huge difference. There is the parable of the mustard seed, which tells of the smallest seed that grows into the greatest of trees. There is another story that the adults will hear after we leave, “the widow’s mite” where we see a poor widow give two of the smallest coins, like two pennies, to the treasury of the temple. Seeing this, Jesus declares that this woman’s small gift was bigger than all of the big gifts of the others who had a lot combined.

Little can be huge, and, sometimes, huge hardly matters at all.

This story isn’t in the Bible to tell us that it is OK to just give a little, it is in the Bible to remind us to give things that matter.

When I was a kid, my sister and I would always share our Halloween candy with our parents. We each had a pumpkin basket that we trick-or-treated with. We also had these three small pumpkin jars, and each year, Nicole and I would fill those jars with all of our snickers, and mounds and such, for Mom and Dad to snack from. Pretty nice, huh? Except. . . we didn’t much like snickers or mounds. Even though there were three jars filled with candy, we were only sharing things that didn’t matter.

I’m not sure how much God is bothered by the amount we give. But I am pretty certain that God wants us to give something that matters.

Let’s pray: Loving God
Help us to give of our selves
And of our things
In ways that matter.
Amen.