Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional "Gifts Great and Small" for Saturday, 28 June 2014 - Read Mark 12:41-44

Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional "Gifts Great and Small" for Saturday, 28 June 2014 - Read Mark 12:41-44
41 Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and saw how the multitude cast money into the treasury. Many who were rich cast in much. 42 A poor widow came, and she cast in two small brass coins,[Mark 12:42 literally, lepta (or widow’s mites). Lepta are very small brass coins worth half a quadrans each, which is a quarter of the copper assarion. Lepta are worth less than 1% of an agricultural worker’s daily wages.] which equal a quadrans coin.[Mark 12:42 A quadrans is a coin worth about 1/64 of a denarius. A denarius is about one day’s wages for an agricultural laborer.] 43 He called his disciples to himself, and said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, this poor widow gave more than all those who are giving into the treasury, 44 for they all gave out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on.”
All of them [rich people] are giving out of their spare change. But [one poor widow] from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.(Mark 12:44 (CEB))
I was picking the last green peas of the season. The vines were tall, and most contained three or four pods of up to nine peas each. As I went along I found one small plant dwarfed by the rest. On it was one pod of about five peas. As I picked it I thought, It ain’t much, but it did what it could; it gave all that it had! Sometimes we think what someone else has to give “ain’t much.” But we are not called to judge how much someone else gives. God calls each of us to give all we can, no matter how great, no matter how small. And we are called to give thanks for all who give, no matter how great or how small the gift.
The Author: John Peebles (Virginia, USA)
Thought for the Day: Today I will answer God’s call to give all I am able.
Prayer: Dear Lord, teach us gratitude for small gifts as well as great gifts, and help us to be grateful for the giver of both. We pray as Jesus taught us, saying, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt. 6:9-13, NIV). Amen.

Prayer focus: Those who think they have little to give
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