Day 4: Repent

Have you ever been lost? Maybe even just felt lost? It's a pretty scary feeling, not knowing where you are headed. Today we learned the story of Zacchaeus, a lost man.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector, and a very small little man. No one liked him, or any tax collectors for that reason. They were on the payroll of the Roman Empire, collecting taxes for Caesar. Tax collectors were known to be thieves, cheating people out of their hard-earned wages, taking more than they were supposed to. Zacchaeus was lost indeed. But someone was searching for him.

Jesus was passing through the town of Jericho, and a crowd had gathered to meet him. Within the crowd was Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. But he was very short and couldn't see over the crowd or push his way to the front. So when he heard Jesus approaching, he ran and climbed a sycamore tree. In those days (I guess it's true today as well), you wouldn't expect to see a prominent man like Zacchaeus climbing trees and acting so foolish. But he was very curious to see this amazing Jesus everyone was talking about.

When Jesus walked by, he looked up into the tree and said, "Zacchaeus, come down from there. I am going to your house today." The crowd could not believe what they were hearing; to be the host of Jesus was a great honour, and how could Jesus bestow that honour on a thieving tax collector like Zacchaeus?

Zacchaeus was so moved by Jesus' gesture that he chose to repent of his sins and make right the wrongs he had committed. Jesus called Zacchaeus a "son of Abraham", showing Jesus believed Zacchaeus was a child of God, "for the Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost".

It's very easy to get lost in this world, with all of the obstacles that can come between us and God. Obstacles like pursuit of wealth, selfishness, busyness, anger or hate, and even gossip can cause us to turn our eyes away from Jesus and waste our precious energies on things that are not pleasing to God. But, thank heavens for the Saviour, Jesus, who always comes searching for us!

Obstacles in the Air:
The pilot of a hot air balloon needs to know how to go around obstacles in the sky. He can't steer the balloon because it goes where the wind takes it. The pilot can make the balloon go higher or lower. To go higher, he turns up the heat on the burner. And to go lower, he opens the hole on the top of the balloon to make the air inside cooler. Sometimes we have obstacles inside of us that make it difficult for us to live the good life we should. But we have an excellent pilot in Jesus, who always knows how to get around these obstacles and keep us on the right flight plan!

Power Prayer:
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10

Tomorrow's Lesson: Serve