Daily Devotional

In college some of my friends nicknamed me “the seeker.” At the time I wasn’t a Christian, and even though I didn’t realize it I was searching for something missing in my life. That’s why I joined the crew of a sailboat and tried to sail around the world.

I wrote to a friend: “I want to enroll in the University of Life. My textbooks will be the stars and the trees, the lines in the faces of the people I meet, the bubblegum in the cracks of cobblestone streets. I want to find out what we all have in common, and what we are missing. I want to find out the purpose of life.”

On the outside there was no evidence God was working in my life. I spoke and acted like an irreverent hedonist. But on the inside the Holy Spirit was preparing my heart for salvation, implanting a curious desire for truth.

In Luke 19, the same type of thing happened with a man named Zacchaeus. He was a “chief” tax collector with a notorious reputation for greed and corruption. But God was working invisibly in his heart.  

In fact, when Jesus passed through his hometown he climbed up into a sycamore tree “to see who Jesus was.”

The crowd ignored him. But Jesus stopped, looked up, and said: “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

Verse 6 reveals that Zacchaeus “received him joyfully,” and verse 9 suggests he was saved that day!

So the moral of the story is “don’t judge a book by its cover.”

As we head into the holidays, keep your eyes open for Zacchaeus – someone who is seeking to find out who Jesus is. And – remember – you may not find him where you normally look. He may be waiting in a tree.

"English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers."