Willing to See
Luke 19: 1-5
“He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.””
What do you see or think, when you read these verses? When I read them the other day, I felt a little rebuked and at the same time, uplifted. Now here is a man who doesn’t know Jesus, but just wanted to see who He was. Zacchaeus’ desire to only see Christ, burned so deep that he was not willing to let his lack of stature stop him from doing so. He was not only willing to climb a tree to see Him, but he also ran ahead of the crowd to be able to find a tree along the way that would allow him to see.
This made me think, what am I willing to do to “see” Jesus. There have been times when I have let the smallest obstacle deter me from getting to the place where I can “see”. There will always be things in our lives that will keep us from getting to the place of seeing the father, but only if we let them. All we have to do is be like Zacchaeus, be willing to do whatever is necessary to get beyond the things that would prevent us from “seeing”.
Now, when Zacchaeus got up in this tree, he was not only rewarded by being able to see Jesus, but he was in turn seen by Jesus. He sees you, and the reward for your effort to see and know him more, will always be greater than you expect.