A telethon features an endless line-up of celebrities and business people coming onstage to donate whopping checks: $2.5 million, $500,000, $1.2 million, another for $750,000. This goes on until at last the cameras focus on Mrs. Gladys Smugley from Hazelhurst, Arkansas. She’s there to give $12.48 – all that’s left from her monthly Social Security check.

Suddenly the band starts playing, lights flash, and confetti starts dropping. The host stops the entire show to announce excitedly, “This is our biggest donation yet!”

If you can envision this, you’ve got a sense of the scene in Mark 12. Jesus’ views on giving are totally unexpected – attitude counts far more than amount. Giving merely leftovers – no matter how much – never impresses God.

Read Mark 12:41-43

During this Christmas season and throughout the next year, make a commitment to cultivate an attitude of sacrificial giving.