The Swindler and the Widow’s Mite

Take the story about the woman who placed the two pennies in the temple-treasury, but let us poeticize a little variation. The two pennies were for her a great sum, which she had not quickly accumulated. She had saved for a long time in order to get them saved up, and then she had hidden them wrapped in a little cloth in order to bring them when she herself went up to the temple. But a swindler had detected that she possessed this money, had tricked her out of it, and had exchanged the cloth for an identical piece which was utterly empty—something which the widow did not know. Thereupon she went up to the temple, placed, as she intended, the two pennies, that is, nothing, in the temple-treasury: I wonder if Christ would not still have said what he said of her, that “she gave more than all the rich?”

Works of Love, p. 294 (SV XII 304)

Honestly, I struggle with this one. When it comes right down to it, in God’s eyes, I believe this to be true; but the critic in me cares more about results—and in the business of helping people, results matter.

It all boils down to the question of what we value more: the practical, or the personal; or, in abstract terms, the tangible or the spiritual. And I have to say, I feel like I have a preference for the tangible. It’s kind of hard being torn between both.

In the end, I’m glad that effort counts for something; I’m glad that God is more concerned with the condition of our hearts than I am.

Thoughts?