THE WIDOW'S MITES

 

May 16, 2025

Coffee With Jesus

The Widow's Mites

The story of the Widow who gave all she had has always been ibe if my favorite Bible stories. A few years ago a very dear young friend, Victoria surprised and delighted me with a gift of two widow's mite coins. Both  the gospels of Luke 21:1-4 and Mark 12:41-44 give similar accounts of the notice Jesus takes of the poor Widow  who humbly and quietly  gave  all the money that she had to the temple treasury. While not related directly to caregiving in the context of Luke’s and Mark’s gospels, certain aspects of the Widow’s giving can be related to our service in taking care of our partners, family members or friends given to us to care for.. Jesus sees our labor of love and sacrifice, He  sees and values even the most insignificant of actions we take on behalf of our partner’s wellbeing.

Most of us who are caring for a friend, life partner or family member are doing so without monetary compensation. Jesus doesn’t assign a monetary value to our service to another. God’s currency is valued by the amounts of love, mercy, and sacrifice we extend to the recipient of our care. The more of these we lavishly and lovingly spend on our loved ones, the greater the value in God’s eyes.

Being a caregiver does require selfless sacrifice in most situations. Most of us who care for someone we love have limited resources of time, money, energy. We might have put on hold, our dreams, free time, our hobbies, and some of those things that make us uniquely ourselves. We pour out all we have to give the best possible care for our person in spite of sometimes feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, exhausted, unnoticed, unappreciated. Our efforts do not go unnoticed, God sees us and values our acts of caregiving, even if the world only sees what we do as "widow's mites".

We may not be widows or widowers, but when caring for a loved one with dementia we may find ourselves feeling lonely, grieving the parts of our relationships that have been lost. As caregivers to family members we see parts of our lives wane and evolve into something that barely

resembles the relationships we had with our persons in earlier years. Conversations may no longer have the richness they held before dementia. The various depths of intimacies in body, mind and spirit change along with our roles in the relationship. 

Jesus is the ultimate caregiver to whom we can turn when caregivers themselves need care. Jesus is “The God Who Sees Us”. He sees our situation, our struggles and our sorrows. He is standing here beside each of us waiting to embrace us, wrapping us gently in a quilt of  His hope and His strength and His comfort. He cares so much for all of us that he laid down His life for us that we might be healed of all our sins, sickness, and sorrows throughout eternity. He showed us how to live for others rather than living for ourselves. But he also teaches us that it’s okay to give more of ourselves some days than other days. We give all we are able. Even the poor widow had to pause from giving to the temple treasury when she ran out of coins. 

Jesus himself had to take time away to pray, to rest when drained by all the demands of the sick and needy throngs that followed him everywhere. He shows us that we need not feel guilty for needing a break and stepping away for a bit to replenish ourselves for caregiving. It’s not the quantity of time we spend caregiving, it’s the quality of our actions that please God. What pleases God most is the motivation for what we do, and how much of our hearts we involve in our caregiving. When our focus is compassionate love for the person in our care, coupled with a desire to serve Jesus, our  smallest caregiving actions are priceless. When we see ministering to the person in our care as ministering to Jesus Himself our hearts open and fill with humility, renewed faith, love, trust. When our hearts open and  look expectantly to Jesus, He blesses us and teaches us important lessons about life and eternity through small moments in our caregiving. 

PRAYER: Dearest Lord Jesus, You are The God Who Sees and the ultimate caregiver. Open our hearts to see that we serve You when we serve the person You have given us to serve. Teach us  through your examples of tenderness, compassion, selflessness and patience. Remind us that you are standing beside us and willing to offer us comfort and strength in the times we need it most. Sometimes we need to pause in our caregiving to refill our well of giving. Direct us to help and support available to us when we need respite from our duties. Thank you for this gift of the persons we care for, and the opportunity to serve you in this way. AMEN

Matthew 25:40

Luke:21 1-4

Mark 12:41-44