Wednesday

“Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’”—Luke 19:8

Leaving aside the reality that given his profession, at least half Zacchaeus’ possessions almost certainly came directly from the poor (see March 19), this little Roman tax collector undertakes an astonishing about-face.  How many of us could honestly claim similar spontaneous manifestations of charity simply to win Jesus’ favor?  Jesus hasn’t even spoken his famous lines about the Son of Man coming to seek out and to save the lost, as he’ll do in verse 10; Zacchaeus gives away the store in sheer joy over Jesus’ presence.  No strings attached!

The other day I was reading through some notes my grandmother had kept from my early childhood.  Grammy has always been a baker (her packages had quite the reputation in my dorm at PLU), and my mother wrote her a note of thanks for some cookies she gave me as a tiny girl.  Evidently she put a cookie on the tray of my high chair and I “just smiled and smiled” at it.  It touches me to think of my baby self expressing such simple joy.  I don’t think I do that very often today.  Zacchaeus did.  He’s a reminder of my need to rekindle the simple joy of living. -- LG

Thank you, Lord, for the example of Zacchaeus’ spontaneous joy at your presence.  Grant us the joy that comes from your constant presence in our lives.  Amen.