by Marilynn Chadwick
Luke stresses the importance of the widow's sacrificial gift. Jesus tells us the Father loves this kind of faith. We bring him glory when we trust him as our loving Provider. Such a message is vastly different from what the religious leaders were teaching. Jesus rebukes them, "What sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden" (Luke 11:46 NLT). Can you imagine? These teachers of the law even got mad when Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath.
Luke encourages us to see God through the eyes of society's least, especially the little ones. I find myself wondering, "Why is it so hard to have simple faith like a child?" Perhaps it's because most people long to be important. Even the disciples hungered for greatness. They once came to Jesus and asked, "Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" (Matthew 18:1).
Jesus shocked them with his answer: He called a little child to him and placed the child among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:2-3).
We can spend our lives searching for "greatness," only to end up self-sufficient, far from God, and just plain tired. Life wasn't meant to be this complicated. What can we learn about keeping it simple from children?
We can learn to be humble: "So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:4). Spend time with children. Be teachable and learn from them.
We can learn to love our neighbor. Don't look down on children or the childlike. If you're a parent or grandparent, guard little eyes. Don't push them to grow up too fast. A lost childhood is hard to regain.
Cultivate a childlike faith. Remember the pathway to heaven is only by grace through faith—faith like a child. The Bible promises we will experience God's favor when we minister to those who are childlike—the least and the lost. "When you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me" (Matthew 25: 40).
Luke's story of the widow's mite (Luke 21:1-4) is about an open door that all can enter. God is the God of Small Things. If a poor widow's small gift is accepted by Jesus, then anyone can be welcomed and loved by Jesus: Little children, babies, tax collectors, Samaritans. Even people like us.
