Have you ever lost anything?
Maybe it’s your car keys, glasses, a special dish, jewelry, a family heirloom, money, a child! Each one of these items probably brought a different reaction in your thinking – a smile when thinking of losing your keys or glasses, a sense of gratitude at finding an heirloom or something of monetary value but an absolutely overwhelming peace and relief at finding a child!
When Kaci, our youngest daughter, was in pre-school they went on a field trip to Sea World in San Diego. I went along as one of the parent helpers. Another parent helper was my friend Theresa. She had 2 children in the preschool but she also had 2 other little ones that were younger than that. We had a wonderful day – the kids had a ball. All was well!
It was getting time to leave and each parent was responsible to see that their group had gone to the bathroom and had all their belongings before we started on the hour’s drive north to the school. Suddenly, there was a frantic movement in one of the other groups. It was Theresa’s. The twins were gone! They had just been there at the fountain with all the others and now they were gone. We got all our kids to sit down out of the way of foot traffic, left a couple of parents with the group and began searching, praying and searching, for Luke and Lizzie. It seemed like hours but was really only about 15 minutes and they had been found! Relief, tears, joy, peace!!
I was reminded of this story this morning as I thought of a verse in Luke 19. Jesus was walking through town and Zacchaeus had climbed a tree to get a look at this man that everyone was talking about. Jesus spotted him and called him down from the tree. Then Jesus said that he wanted to go to Zacchaeus’ home.
The Pharisees, the religious rulers of the day, were critical of Jesus for associating with “such a low life”, my paraphrase of Zacchaeus’ character. You see, Zacch worked for the IRS and had just been in hearings in front of the Senate committee for misappropriating funds and lying about how much taxes the folks owed. Oh, wait – no that’s another story. But by his own admission, Zacchaeus had taken money wrongfully from the citizens. The Pharisees felt justified with their criticism of Jesus and Zacchaeus.
Now hear Jesus words:
” For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10 ESV
He, Jesus, came to seek and to save the lost! That’s the reason He came on that Christmas morning.
With the same singleness of purpose that we searched for Luke & Lizzie, Jesus “just happened” to walk down a road by a big tree – He just happened to look up and call to a man that others would ignore. Zacchaeus went to see Jesus, but Jesus was seeking to touch and save Zacchaeus.
I want to ask a personal question. If we lived in Jesus’ time and saw Him hanging out with the IRS agents, hookers, liars, politicians, etc. would we be critical of Him for making association with people of such low degree? Or would we realize that He was on a mission from the Father to find and save a lost child?
May the love of God flow through us today and allow the Father to use us to seek out, befriend and find the lost!
