Zack: A Tree Huggin’ Man

By Bea Edwards

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Luke 19:10 NKJV

Zacchaeus heard the townspeople talking and crowds were beginning to gather.

“Jesus is coming!” they said. “The man that’s been healing the sick!” said others.

I want to see him, Zacchaeus thought.

Now, Zacchaeus was a short man. Perhaps shorter than you, and he couldn’t see above all the people in front of him. Across the road he spotted the tallest tree he had ever seen.

I know what I’ll do. I’m good at climbing trees. He didn’t want to ask Jesus any questions and he didn’t need healing. He just wanted to see Jesus. So guess what Zacchaeus did?

When Jesus looked up, there lay Zacchaeus sprawled out and hugging tightly to the tree limb so he wouldn’t fall off.

“Zacchaeus,” Jesus said, calling him by his name just like they were buddies.

“Come down here. I want to go to your house.”

Don’t you know Zacchaeus was surprised? But he shouldn’t have been.

Just like Zacchaeus, Jesus knows each of us by name. He loves us like we were his best friends. Truth is, He can be your best friend. Just ask Him to come into your heart, and He will.

Bea Edwards lives in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina with her best friend: a three-year-old pit bull named Sophie. She has one grown daughter who is forever “the apple of her eye.”

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