“Sitting across from the temple treasury, He watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. And a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. Summoning His disciples, He said to them, “I assure you: This poor widow has put in more than all those giving to the temple treasury. For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she possessed—all she had to live on.””
- Mark 12:41-44 HCSB
I don’t know who first decided we needed a “Giving Tuesday,” but I imagine it was someone who watched the world elbow through Black Friday, sprint through Cyber Monday, and figured we all needed a deep breath and a reminder that our hands were made for more than carrying shopping bags.
Leaves fall quietly. Frost forms slowly. And gratitude—real gratitude—grows the same way. It isn’t loud. It isn’t flashy. It certainly doesn’t need a hashtag. It just settles into the soil of the heart and produces something generous.
Jesus once sat in the temple and watched a widow slip in two small coins—nothing impressive by earthly math, but He leaned in close. Her gift wasn’t about amount. It was about affection. Her heart overflowed into her hands. And Jesus said she gave more than all the others combined.
Not because she had more to give, but because she gave from a place of trust.
Giving Tuesday asks us to look outward. But Scripture asks us to look inward first.
Because grateful giving doesn’t begin at the wallet.
It begins at the well—
the well of remembering what God has already poured into our lives.
And if we’re honest, some days it’s hard to feel grateful. Life gets heavy. Budgets get tight. Worries get loud. But even then—especiallythen—gratitude whispers like a steady friend: “Look again. God is still here. You still have breath. You still have provision. You still have hope. You’re still held.”
When gratitude takes root, giving stops feeling like losing something, and starts feeling like participating in something.
Something bigger.
Something eternal.
Something Kingdom-shaped.
Giving Tuesday may come once a year, but grateful giving—the kind that reflects the heart of Jesus—belongs to every season. In December and in February, in tax season and in tight seasons, in times of plenty and times of prayerful stretching.
Generosity isn’t meant to be an event.
It’s meant to be a rhythm—
like a heartbeat that echoes God’s own.
So as you give—today or any day—don’t rush. Don’t give from guilt. Don’t give from pressure. Stop long enough to remember the ways God has provided, carried, forgiven, strengthened, surprised, and sustained you.
Let gratitude stir first.
Then let generosity flow from there.
Because grateful giving looks a lot like love.
And love, as Jesus has shown us, is the kind of gift that keeps giving long after the moment has passed.
Keep the Faith… Carpe Diem
