Mark is a marvel when it comes to storytelling. He is the O. Henry of the New Testament, a magician with words, who squeezes a novel into a paragraph or two. His skill is nowhere more evident than in his account of the widow with the two coins at the temple treasury. It is a gem of a short story. He makes it so easy for us to visualize the woman as she waits patiently in line to drop her offering into the chest with the trumpet-shaped tube. Without going into a detailed character study, he makes us feel that she is worthy of our profound admiration and respect.

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He shows us - without saying as much - a woman who is to be admired for holding fast to her faith, when death snatched her husband away. Her kind bolster our own faith. The preacher, who stands behind the pulpit, never ceases t…