Our God Seeks
Zacchaeus… was a wee little man who climbed up a sycamore tree. Why? Because he wanted to get a glimpse of Jesus. This itinerant and traveling rabbi was leaving the religious elite speechless and healing the broken. The interaction that ensued is profound and important for two reasons; first, we see Zacchaeus’ response, humility, faith, and generosity. In the simplest of terms, his heart was changed that day by Jesus, and his life followed suit. However, Zacchaeus’ life was only changed because Jesus sought him out. A fact that Jesus illuminates in his statement, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Lk. 19:10)
This illustrates a crucial character trait of God; he seeks for us and desires to restore us. Without this seeking action, Zacchaeus would have been left on his own to hopelessly grope through life trying to find meaning, purpose, and contentment. The sad reality is that in his sin, there was no hope for him to find a lasting sense of any of those. But, God sought him out. This isn’t new news about God; he has been seeking from the very beginning. Even before the fall, God created man out of an overflow of his love. We didn’t just appear, and God had to figure out what to do with us. He was intentional in his design and creation of man. And when man rejected him, he sought him out. While Adam and Eve hid, God made the first move towards reconciliation. Sit and take in the grace of that truth. The One who was rejected made the first move towards the one who rejected Him so that the relationship could be restored. Praise God that he seeks us out.
As we have walked through the book of Acts, we have come to see time and time again that changed people talk about what changed them. In this way, God invites us to join him in the seeking action. God loves us, seeks for us while we are in our rebellion, and invites us into mission with him to seek out others. Why? Because there is abundant life in him exclusively. And, we must know him to experience that life. So, he seeks us out because we couldn’t find him on our own, and he wants to be known. In fact, that is his greatest desire.