The Offering

A timely lesson

When the brass offering plate arrived at Rusty’s row, he squirmed in his seat a bit. Actually, he was nervous that he’d grab it and drop the entire plate like he did once before, and preferred it never happen again.

After his mom took the plate and laid in a folded check, Rusty tossed in a few coins and three dollar bills – which was about 30% of his allowance. He wanted to put in more but had other plans for it.

Then he passed the plate to Mr. Hodgkins, his hand shaking when he did it. Rusty didn’t know much about the man, but knew him to be wealthy, owning three businesses in town.  

Mr. Hodgkins set the plate on his lap and snapped six one-hundred dollar bills one by one and laid them in the plate. After the last bill was snapped and placed, he passed the plate to the end of the aisle, looked over at Rusty and winked. The 10-year-old boy hadn’t seen bills that size before and it might as well have been a million dollars in his eyes.

Throughout the preacher’s sermon, all Rusty could think about was what Mr. Hodgkins put in the plate.

So big. Such a large offering. How could a man afford to give so much money at one time? The man must have been a kazillionaire.

Perhaps the preacher saw Mr. Hodgkins fill the offering plate too because the sermon was about the widow’s mite and the wealthy man’s proud offering. In the end, the Lord Jesus summed up the parable by saying, “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

Rusty looked at Mr. Hodgkins out of the corner of his eye and considered the preacher’s words.

Maybe his offering wasn’t so big after all, Rusty thought. Maybe he got his reward already.