"He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zachaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.' So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.'" Luke 19:1-6

This week a lot of us said goodbye to our current ministries as schools closed for their holiday break. Therefore, many of us had parties at our various locations. On Wednesday, I had a party for my students.  I wrote all of them personal notes, baked cake, had popcorn (puff corn), and projected "Chronicles of Narnia" for them. It was a lot of fun. I dearly love these students and loved being able to give them a fun morning. While showing the film, the above scripture came to mind.

We were only able to show it to my class at first because the classroom couldn't hold more students. But that didn't keep other students from watching the movie. There were children hanging inside the windows, standing on stools outside to see in, and one student even climbed a tree to catch a glimpse of the movie. This reminded me of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was small of stature and couldn't see over the crowd, but that didn't keep him from seeing Jesus. Likewise, this student wasn't in grade four, and couldn't get up to the window to see, but that didn't stop him. My prayer is that these students would be even more excited to find Jesus than they were to see the movie. We showed Chronicles of Narnia so we could share about Jesus and remind them that we came to love them because Jesus loves them. They know all about Jesus, but it isn't personal, powerful, or loving. So please keep these children in your prayers! Let's fight on their behalf, that the intimacy of the Father would captivate their hearts.

And I pray that I will always be willing to climb the tree!