It's the Percentage
Luke 21:1-4 NKJV
21 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, 2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. 3 So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; 4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."
This is the account of Jesus watching as people gave in the offering. Evidently, the giving in that day was a good deal more public than our giving today. As Jesus watched the rich putting in their gifts, He was able to discern that these people were giving of their surplus funds. And Jesus did not criticize them. He did not condemn them for being rich. He did not say they should have given all that they had to rid themselves of that evil money. Jesus did not say that they should have given more. He simply observed.
The one Jesus did comment on was the poor widow. In the culture of that day, a widow was often caught in a severe cycle of poverty. Widows did not usually have good means of providing extra income when their husbands died. And if there were no children, particularly sons, to take care of her, the widow could be in genuine financial poverty. Notice I said financial poverty. The widow that Jesus observed was not poor spiritually. You have to have some strength to put in all the money that you have as a gift to God.
Jesus shocked the financially conscious Jews with the declaration that the widow put in more than all of the rich people. Sometimes, the wealthy religious Jews would make a big deal of how much they were giving. Jesus was not a fan of blowing the horn when offering gifts. So when Jesus highlighted what the widow gave, it had to be a shock. The thing about the widow's gift was the percentage. She gave 100%, everything she had. Jesus said the wealthy did not give that percentage because they gave of their surplus. Jesus remarked about a woman giving all she had to honor God. So in the eyes of heaven, it's the percentage that is noted even more than the amount.
Application
I have often heard people receiving a church offering say it doesn't matter the size of the gift. Sometimes they reference the widow's two small coins. I agree that it's not the amount given that God notices, it's the percentage. Heaven views things differently. From God's perspective, we don't know who the biggest givers are. Oh, we can gauge the amounts with no problem, but we rarely know the percentage of their total assets. Just another reason not to judge; we don't know what is going on behind the scenes.
The best thing we can do is give and give cheerfully, knowing that God is able to make all grace abound toward us. And since heaven looks at percentages, the good news is that all of us can be big givers in God's sight.