Good morning
Today I have something very special. We read in Luke 21:1-3: “As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ‘I tell you the truth,’ he said, ‘this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’”
Here follows the modern day version (author unknown):
I will not easily forget Easter of 1946. I was 14, Ocy 12 and Darlene 16 years of age. Us three lived with Mother and understood what it meant to get along without many things. My father had passed away five years earlier and had left my mother with seven children and no money. By 1946 the eldest four had already left home.
A month before Easter our pastor announced that on Easter a special collection will be taken to help a poor family. He asked everybody to save some money and to really sacrifice by giving generously.
Back home we immediately started to talk about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds (approx 23kg) of potatoes and live on it for the entire month. That way we could save $20.00 on our grocery budget, which we could contribute. We also decided to reduce our electricity usage so we could save even more. We cleaned people's houses and backyards and used every opportunity to babysit. With each 15 cents we got we bought enough wool to knit three oven gloves, which we then sold for $1.00. This way we managed to raise another $20.00.
That month was one of the best in our lives. In the evenings we sat in the dark chatting about how the poor family will enjoy the money the church was going to give them. Since there were about 80 people in the congregation, we calculated that the poor family will receive at least 20 times the amount we would contribute. After all, the pastor did remind them every Sunday of this special collection.
The day before Easter my sister and I went to the grocery store and exchanged all the small change for three new $20.00 notes and one $10.00 note. We ran home to show them to Mother and Darlene. We never before had so much money. That night we could hardly sleep due to the excitement. It did not bother us that we could not get new clothes for Easter, since we had $70.00 for the special offering. We couldn't wait to go to church.
That Sunday it rained cats and dogs. We didn't possess an umbrella, but did not care to get wet either. Darlene's feet even got wet because her shoes had holes. Proudly we sat in church. I heard some of the other teenagers whisper something about the Smith girls wearing their old dresses again. I looked at their new dresses and felt very rich. During the collection Mother put in the $10.00 note and each of us a $20.00 note. We sang on the way back home. For lunch Mother surprised us. She had bought a dozen eggs and we could eat Easter eggs with the potatoes.
Late that afternoon the pastor turned up at our home. Mother opened the door, spoke a short while with him and came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she said nothing. When she opened the envelope a lot of money fell out of it; three new $20 notes, one new $10 note and seventeen $1.00 notes. Mother put the money back and nobody said anything. We just sat there, staring at the floor. Moments ago we felt like millionaires, but now we felt poor and worthless.
Our life thus far had been so happy and we felt sorry for everybody who did not have our mother and father and a home full of brothers and sisters and friends constantly visiting. We had thought it was fun to share cutlery and to always wonder what you would get tonight - the fork or spoon. We had two knives that we sent around for those who needed it.
We knew other people had many things we didn't have, but we never thought of ourselves as poor. But that Easter we found out that we were actually poor. The pastor did bring the money that they collected for the poor family, to us. So we had to be poor! I did not like being poor at all. I looked at my dress and worn out shoes and was so ashamed I did not want to go to church anymore. Everybody had apparently known for a long time that we were poor. At school I was in year nine and was top of the class of over a hundred children. I wondered whether these children also knew we were poor. I decided to leave school, since I already passed year eight, the grade I needed to officially leave school as the law required those years.
We sat there quietly for a long time and eventually went to bed. During the week following we spoke very little. That Saturday Mother broke the silence asking what we wanted to do with the money. We wondered what poor people do with money. We did not know, since we did not know we were poor. We actually did not want to go back to church on the Sunday, but Mother said we had to.
Although it was a lovely sunny day, nobody spoke. Mother put in a song, but nobody joined in. At church a missionary spoke and told how people in Africa built churches with sundried clay bricks, but they needed money to put on roofs. He said that $100.00 should be sufficient for the roof of one church. The pastor asked whether we all could bring an offering to help these poor people.
We looked at one another and smiled for the first time that week. Mother took the envelope from her handbag and we sent it on to Ocy who put it in the offering basket. When the money was counted, the pastor announced that the contribution was just over $100.00. The missionary was very excited for he did not expect such a generous contribution from such a small congregation. He said that we had to have rich people in our church. Then it struck us. We gave $87.00 of the just more than $100.00. We were the rich family in the church. Did the missionary not say it himself? Since that day I have never again been poor.
Lord, help us to give like the poor widow.
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