Guatemala: The widow's mite

When do we learn to hoard our vast-beyond-measure stuff? When does the chubby baby sharing a saliva-slimed cracker with anyone and everyone turn into the intemperate toddler who must have everything? Is there salvation for our greedy hearts?

^"1 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ² He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³ “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴ All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on" (from Luke 21).

She came and sat down before me, weary from the load she literally and figuratively carried. She smiled shyly, and I was immediately captured by her joyful smile and the radiant beauty of the daughter she held in her lap. Through a translator, we quickly said our hellos and moved onto the more serious matter, that of the medical needs she and her daughter shared. With the resources brought over by our team from the States, I did my best to help her. I gave her a toothbrush and vitamins, some medicine for their ailments. A mite from our millions.

She returned with a mite from her poverty, proving her richness in spirit. As she was standing to leave, repeating over and over, "Gracias, gracias, muchas gracias," she slipped the ruby red headband off of her head and handed it to me. A gift from the richness of her heart.


The red headband is not the most expensive gift I have ever received, nor the most extravagant. It stole my breath just the same, as did what seemed like hundreds of other love offerings I received over the course of my time in Guatemala.

America may be one of the richest countries in the world as far as material wealth goes, but while I was in Guatemala, I watched more than one widow offer her only mite to Jesus. In some ways, they have more than we could ever hope to have.

To conclude our week of clinics, we were blessed by an incredible body of believers who worked alongside us in their own church building. They held a service in celebration of God's work, giving each member of our 31-member team a beautiful gift...a mite from their poverty, from the richness of their hearts.

What have you done with your wealth?