Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
 – Luke 21:1-4

God’s math works differently than ours.  According to human math, the rich are obviously giving more.  But according to God’s math, it is the widow who gives more.  Consider further what God’s math looks like:

We never earn too little to give.  The poor widow is unable to earn hardly any money, yet she gives.  Human math may tell us we earn too little and discourage us from giving.  But the widow frees us from seeing only through human eyes.  She helps us see through God’s eyes.  If she can give, then so can we.

God doesn’t despise small gifts.  The rich are giving great sums of money.  Human math would say that the widow’s gift is insignificant.  God’s math says she gives more than all the others.  We might despise her gift, but God values it.  And he can use it.  Human math may tell us our gift is too small.  But God values and uses small gifts.  What an encouragement for us!

God is more interested in percentages than amounts.  The rich are giving much money, but a small percentage.  The widow gives only two small coins but a hundred percent.  Human math says the rich gave more.  God’s math says the widow gave more.  God sees the percentage.  We may not have a large amount to give, but everyone can give a percentage.  How encouraging!

God looks at the heart more than the gift.  The widow doesn’t have to give, but she wants to give.  Human math only sees the money, but God’s math cares more about the heart.  What moves our hearts to give?  The widow’s gift occurs during the week before Christ’s death for us.  The widow could be seen as a type of Christ who became poor to give all that he had – his very life for us.  The more we grasp his sacrificial gift, the more we will desire to sacrificially give to him.

The real issue isn’t giving, it’s trust.  In giving all she has, the widow must trust in God to take care of her.  One reason people struggle to give is that they trust in their money more than in God to take care of them.  They follow human math, and forget God’s math.  If we don’t trust God, we won’t give until we have more than we need.  But God is well able to take care of us.

Christ’s return should motivate us to give.  After observing the widow, Jesus begins to predict his return.  We can invest our money in trinkets that will mean nothing when Christ returns, or we can invest our money in the kingdom that will last forever.  Human math sees only this world.  God’s math looks to eternity. 

We can live like the rest of world using merely human math, or we can begin to see the world using God’s math.  May God help us to see as he does.