Like the Widow's Mite

“The great fact to be considered is not our lot in life, but what we make out of it. Let us, then, each accept the lot assigned us, simply to do the best we can in it and with it.

“Wait not, then, for great occasions. The present moment, and the mite you can contribute as it passes, are your all. For, rightly viewed, what is the present moment but the index on the dial-plate, forever moving, till it makes up your whole life!

“The whole of Christian duty, then, is compressed in one simple direction: “Do all you can for Christ from a pure motive now.” Thus, inconsiderable as your actions may appear to men, like the widow’s mite they will be great in the eye of heaven; and, though they attract not the admiration of the world, they will secure your eternal peace.

“When Christ comes, and all men shall stand before Him in judgment, He will say to you before an assembled world, “Come, ye blessed of my Father; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many; enter into the joys of your Lord.

“And he looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all. For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.” Luke 21:1-4.

From: Theophilus Stork. Sermons. “The Widow’s Mite”

[The Widow’s Mite by João Zeferino da Costa, 1876.]