Luke 21:1-6: in context

Jesus watches people putting their gifts into the temple treasury. The rich put in large amounts; then a poor widow comes and puts in two small copper coins, worth almost nothing. And Jesus says something that overturns the ordinary measure of giving: truly, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all gave out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on. By the amount, her gift was the least; by God's measure, it was the greatest, because it cost her the most.

Jesus' assessment reverses how we naturally measure giving. By the amount, the rich gave far more; the widow's two coins were negligible beside their large sums. But Jesus measures differently. He looks not at the amount given but at the cost to the giver, and at the heart behind it. The rich gave out of their abundance; their large gifts cost them little, leaving them still with plenty. The widow gave out of her poverty; her tiny gift cost her everything, all she had to live on. And so, in God's eyes, she gave more than all of them, because she gave more sacrificially, more wholly, more from the heart. This teaches us that God measures our giving not by its size but by its cost and the heart behind it. A large gift given easily from abundance may be less, in God's eyes, than a small gift given at great sacrifice. God does not weigh the amount on the scale the world uses; he weighs the cost to the giver, the sacrifice, the heart. The widow's two coins, given at the cost of everything she had, outweighed all the large gifts given from surplus. If the readiness is there, Paul says, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. This frees and searches us at once. It frees those who can give little: your small gift, given at real cost and from a willing heart, is not despised by God but valued above larger gifts given easily. You need not give large amounts to give greatly in God's eyes; the widow's mite was more than all the rich. And it searches those who give from abundance: is our giving a real sacrifice, costing us something, given from the heart, or merely a comfortable portion of our surplus that costs us nothing? God loves a cheerful giver, Paul says, and measures the gift by the heart and the cost, not the amount. The widow gave two coins and gave more than all; and God still measures our giving not by its size but by its cost and the heart from which it comes, valuing the sacrificial gift of the poor above the easy gift of the rich.

Do I measure giving by its amount, as the world does, thinking a small gift counts for little and a large one for much, and can the widow, whose two coins Jesus valued above all the large gifts of the rich because she gave out of her poverty all she had, teach me that God measures giving by its cost and the heart behind it, freeing me to give greatly with little and searching whether my giving from abundance is a real sacrifice or merely a comfortable portion that costs me nothing?