Climb a tree to see

My sons have a computer game that includes many Bible stories and one of their favorites is the story of Zacchaeus climbing up the Sycamore tree. The story comes from Luke 19:1-10 (NIV) ~ Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.'" But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

Zacchaeus had earthly wealth and earthly position. He lacked only in height, but still he wanted to see. The crowd blocked his vision, he overcame the crowd. But...he couldn't overcome his own sinfulness. He couldn't save himself from his sins. So he sought out the savior. He climbed a tree to see and he saw. The crowd which didn't need a tree to see focused on the sinner not the savior. The savior was just "passing through" but took the time to stop and save a sinner seeking him out...and the crowd merely focused on the sins of the sinner, instead of the grace of the Savior! Sometimes we too need to get away from the crowd, and seek out Jesus the Savior. Perhaps we need to climb a tree to see!