Day 5: What Zacchaeus taught ME

Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

 ¹ Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.  ⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
 ⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
 ⁸ 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.”
 ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”   

Luke 19:1-10

Concentrating on one story with Molly has really forced me into the Word in such an amazing way this week.  As I was pouring truth into her little heart, it seems as though God has been pouring into mine.  So here are a few lessons He has taught me through the life of Zacchaeus this week.  

The tree

 As I was helping Molly make her sycamore tree, I thought about what it must have been like for God to plant that seed in the ground and watch it grow.  Making sure it was planted right next to the path that Jesus would walk on some day, crafting its branches to make it the perfect climbing tree, giving it a strong trunk to bear the weight of a short Jewish man. He really is an amazing Creator!  

It made me think about all the "trees" he has planted in my life to draw me closer to Jesus.  The trials He has placed in specific times and places on my journey, the people he brought about at just the right times to speak truth and encouragement, the verses I read on days I need my head to be lifted...they draw me into a closer walk with Him, and just like Zacchaeus, they have allowed me to see Jesus more clearly.  

The coins

When Molly and I talked about Zaccheaus being a tax collector, it made me think about how the proper response after I come into contact with Jesus should be generosity to those in need. 

I thought about all the ways that I hold back from giving all I should.  I am more like Zacchaeus, the tax collector, than I like to admit.  I steal time and energy away from my children when I choose to spend time on facebook instead of reading to them.  I steal time away from making my house a haven for my family when I choose not to do dishes or vaccum and say, "I've had a long day...I need to veg on the couch."  I steal a better education away from my students when I don't take the time to prepare for a lesson as much as I should.   I am wealthy, and many times to choose to hoard my time, talents, and energy for myself.

Just like Zaccheaus, close encounters with Jesus tend to expose me to my own sin.

The house

The transformation that happened at Zacchaeus's house and in his heart was a profound miracle...just as worthy of celebration of the blind man seeing, lame man walking, or deaf man hearing.  I can imagine Jesus coming to this man's house and how proud Zacchaeus must have been to flaunt his wealth.  I don't know what Jesus said to him while He was there, but when He left, Zacchaeus's response was shame for how much he had, and remorse for how little his neighbor had.  It made me think to myself, "If Jesus came to my house, would I be ashamed of how I am using my resources here?  Am I keeping too much for myself when by giving things away I could be a blessing to others?" 

 The climb

Two things I assume about Zacchaeus's climb that day...  One: being a wealthy man, he was probably wearing nice clothes- clothes that were not meant to climb trees in.  And two: he either tried and failed to press through the crowds, or didn't bother trying because he knew how much he was hated.  Grown men don't climb trees.  His desire to see Jesus was more powerful than caring what other people thought of him.

 Does my desire to know Jesus outweigh my desire to be liked, accepted, or appreciated by peers?  Or do I care too much about how I am perceived and miss an opportunity to meet Him in my humility?

Climbing can be difficult, humbling, and time consuming.  But like Zacchaeus learned on a road in Jericho that day, meeting Jesus is always worth it.   

Zacchaeus: Day 4.... Climbing

I wanted to teach Molly how when Zacchaeus climbed a tree he could see more.  When we search for things, sometimes it helps to get a better perspective.  I thought about taking her to the playground and climbing the equipment, even climbing things in our house (but then I knew that would be a bad idea in hindsight....Molly on the bookshelf, Molly on the top of the couch...Molly on the sink....you get the idea.) 

I opted to take her and Sadie to a wildlife refuge about 10 minutes from my house.  My dad happens to be the most amazing bird and wildlife identifier I know, and it was extra special to have Pop pop come along for our adventure.

 

Molly and Pop pop with matching "adventure hats"

Our first stop was the look-out tower.  I told Molly, "We're going to climb the tower just like Zacchaeus! What did Zacchaeus climb?"  Molly answered, "A sycamore tree!  C'mon Pop pop!  Let's climb the tower!"  (Ah, sweet repetition pays off.  If only there were some sycamore trees around here.)

Climbing with Pop pop.

Almost there...

At the top!

Pop pop showing her some geese flying. 

A look through the telescope. 

 At this point, she didn't want to go down, but I asked her, "What did Jesus say to Zacchaeus?"  And she sang, pointer finger in the air, "Zacchaeus, YOU COME DOWN!  For I'm going to your house today...."  And then she wanted to climb down.

Ready with her 'nocs.

We got back in the car for the rest of our adventure to see some ducks and geese.  

An egret and black duck. 

Driving around the refuge.  You can see Atlantic City in the background.

Looking closer with her binoculars.

Snow geese. 

Shovelers.

We ended our day with a trip to Bagel Gormet where Molly got a bagel with pink strawberry cream cheese, and we visited Justin at school to deliver him a bagel for lunch.  It was a pretty excellent day.

Zacchaeus: Day 3...The tax collector

Today Molly and I talked about what it meant for Zachaeus to be a "tax collector."  In our game today, the big, bad tax collector was played by "Evil Dr. Porkchop."

 

I set up some stuffed animals with piles of money in front of them for our tax collector to collect.

 I told her, "Zacheas had to take 1 coin from each person, but he took more than he should!  Is that a good choice or a bad choice?"  She said, "that's a bad choice, Zacchaeus!"

And she scooped up all the coins and put them in her piggy bank.  (She LOVES to play with money, so this proved to be an easy thing to get her to do.)  

 We dumped out all the coins and counted them.

 Then I told her, "After Zacchaes met Jesus, he wanted to be nice to everyone and give their money back!"  Molly just wanted to feed her toys the coins so her answer was, "Oh what a good idea!  That sounds delicious!" 

 And I ended with, "and everyone was so happy that they got their money back and they knew that Zachaeus was nice after he met Jesus!" 

 I really don't know how much Molly understood what a tax collector does, or how after we know Jesus, he helps us be nice to other people, but she did love playing with her coins!

Zacchaeus: Days 1 &2

In our new church, there are two wonderful ladies who volunteer to take my daughter and her 3 year old friend, Lily, each week and teach them a Sunday School lesson.  I am so thankful that they take the time to miss a service twice a month to speak truth into their little lives.  Molly learned about Zacchaeus this week and made these paper bag puppets.

We pray with Molly each night before bed, read her a story from the Bible, and pray before we eat, but I'm not very deliberate about teaching Molly the truth of the Scriptures and how to apply it to our lives.   She talks a LOT, and I know she understands more than I think she does, so having her now in Sunday School inspired me to be a little more proactive in teaching her little heart about the things of Jesus.  So yesterday, it was all about the song.

And today we made a little craft to teach about the tree that Zacchaeus climbed.  My sister, Amy, said I should blog about it, so here it is....

I cut strips into a brown paper bag.  (In this case, I just used a Dunkin Donuts bag I happened to have in the car.)

Twisted the center. 

And spread out the branches.

  

Molly and I tore little leaves out of construction paper.  Half way through, she got tired, and I tore and she put them in a bowl. I told her, "We're making a sycamore tree." And she asked, "Is that Zacchia's tree?" My heart did a little victory dance when I realized she's putting it all together.  

And we added the leaves onto the tree with tacky glue.

We used another coloring project from last week's lesson (I think it was Bartamaeus) and turned him into Zacchaeus and glued him in the tree.

I drew Jesus on the chalkboard saying, "Zaccheaus, you come down!  I'm going to your house today!"

 On our chalkboard in the kitchen, our verse comes from the story of Zacchaeus, and we're memorizing it together as a family this week.  

 

       And as I was being a negligent blogging mama, Molly decided to turn her couch over.  I asked, "Molly did you climb up on your couch like Zaccheaus climbed the tree!?" She smiled and said, "Yes!  Just like Zaccheaus.  I climbed!"  It's all about the teachable moments. :) 

Memorial video

This is a video my sister, brother-in-law, and I put together of pictures we had of Gregg.  Gregg would have loved that it had Johnny Cash songs on it.  The pictures towards the end with my girls make me smile.  He really loved them.

Exhale

In my house there are two distinct seasons.  1- Basketball season and 2- Not basketball season.  Justin has coached our varsity girls team for the past 5 years, and it used to be so much fun when we did it together.  But in the A.M. (after Molly) it has been a struggle to keep our house running smoothly when Justin doesn't get home until after 6 (after 9 sometimes on away games) from the beginning of November until March.  I would try to bring the littles to games sometimes, but with the daily "5:00 meltdown" when grumpy hungry bear cubs would awake from naps and tummy alarms would go off, it was a struggle to even get the girls into the car with coats on....let alone keep them on bleachers for an hour and a half.  Let's be honest.... I could rarely watch anything when I would go, even with the help of my ipod and some toddler-friendly technology.

But we have now reached my favorite time of year....NOT basketball season!  (And yes, I know, I'm a spoiled wife who loves when her husband gets home at 4:00).  It's so lovely to cook together, take family walks, and generally have some time to breathe before dinner gets on the table and food gets scarfed, books get read, bath tubs get filled, and two exhausted parents collapse on the couch at 9:00.  

This year has been particularly stressful.  Add to the mix a few plagues that knocked us down in December and January, Justin finishing up his last semester of his master's degree with lots of papers and an internship, and oh yes....starting a new church with Justin as the associate pastor, I'm surprised we've made it to March with hair still on my head and a ring still on my finger.  I need to take a long deep breath and let my frustrations out.  And this seems to be the place that I do it.  Lucky you.  You get to read my verbal drabble.  

Now that I have a little more time to myself when there's an extra set of hands to help with the girls, I feel I can start to address and begin to process what's happened this past month.  On February second, we found out that my brother, Gregg, passed away.  I hate to say it so candidly.  I don't know how to say it at all.  It sounds weird when I say it, even worse when I type it.  Written words are so official and final.  We still don't know what happened exactly, other it was accidental.

I don't know how to talk about his life and his death in a way that neither desecrates his character, nor glorifies a life that wasn't lived to its fullest potential.  I will say that the part of him that I that I will miss so much is how much he loved my girls and my dog that he adopted from me.

                                           

Molly just loved her Uncle Gregg.  I loved watching his face when she opened up her motorcycle he bought her for her second birthday this September.

I find myself contemplating mortality more.  I hate how losses get all clumped together in my head and the loss of another loved one makes me miss my son.  I think how unprepared I would be if Justin were suddenly not here.  I find myself being so thankful for this life God has given me.  I am reminded of how important it is to tell those we love that we love them.

I realize that these thoughts have been scattered, but that's all I have energy for.  Words and deep breaths.  Bracing for the hard work of grieving loss once again, and thankful that I now get to spend more time with my favorite basketball coach/ assistant pastor/ master's degree pursuer/ husband/ father/ friend.  

The Better Half of a Hypocrite's Life

I've learned to tell this story with great gusto and enthusiasm.  It usually buys me about ten minutes of absolute silence of a room full of ninth grade swooning girls and wide-eyed ninth grade boys who are eager to find fodder to tease their Bible teacher (Justin) with.

It usually starts with, "Do you want to hear the story how Mr. Benson and I started dating?" and ends with a five minute lecture of how MOST people don't end up marrying the person they date in ninth grade, so "don't date until you're 30, kids!"

It started at a friend's Superbowl party, where I happened to sit next to Justin.  I couldn't tell you who won, or who was even playing (he probably could, including the score).  All I know is we talked the entire game.  He was trying to "teach" me all about football, although, no real learning occurred, because honestly, I still don't quite understand it, or how people can watch 5 seconds of a game followed by five minutes of setting up for another play......anyway.  We also talked about how he was thinking about getting back together with his ex-girlfriend that he used to date in 8th grade, and I talked him out of it. *Yay, me!*  I didn't think much of the conversation, only that I didn't mind watching a football game sitting next to him.

The next day at school, my best friend grabbed me by the wrist and shuttled me to the bathroom after lunch.  "I need to tell you something."  She was almost jumping-up-and-down giddy."I'm not supposed to tell you, so you have to pretend you don't know, ok?"
I nodded.  "What is it?!?!"
"Okay, but you can't say ANYTHING. k?  Justin.  Benson.  LIKES YOU!!!!"
"Really?"  I was half excited- half nervous.  She blurted out how much he enjoyed talking with me at the party, and how he wanted to ask me out, but didn't know if I liked him too.  I instantly did.  Ninth grade girls are like that.

The next week was TORTURE.  Justin sat next to me in art class, and he would sharpen my pencils and throw the shavings at me, and I would yell at him, pretending to be annoyed.  I just had to giggle and pretend to not know what I knew.

That Friday, we had a basketball game in Delaware, which was about an hour and a half bus ride away.  After the JV game that Justin played in and the girls varsity game, we were sitting on the bleachers watching the boys varsity game.  My best friend sat in between us.  They were mumbling back and forth the first half of the game, concocting a plan.  I stared forward pretending not to try to listen or know what they were plotting.  After half time, my friend and I switched places.

"Um......I wanted to ask you a question..." Justin blurted out, mumbling.
"Okay?" I just looked forward, pretending not to be too interested.
"I was wondering if you would go out with me?"  he asked nervously.
"What did you say?" I looked at him.  I heard him completely.  I just wanted to make him ask again, because I'm mean like that.
"I wanted to ask you if you would go out with me." he said again, louder and a little more confidently.
"Oh.  Well....let me pray about it and tell you on Monday."  I said, wanting him to think I was worth waiting for.

  He leaned back. I leaned forward. My friend leaned back.

"What did she say?" my friend mouthed to him.
"MONDAY!" he mouthed back, brow furrowed, annoyed.

AREN'T I CRUEL!?!?  (not as cruel as he was...just wait...)

After the game, the bleachers cleared, and in the shuffle of people I found him.

"Okay.  I thought about it.  Yes."

It was 8:27 p.m.  New Castle, Delaware.  January 31st, 1997.  Fifteen year old girls remember these kinds of things.

On the ride home, the boys sat in the front of the bus and the girls sat in the back.  I suppose we could have tried to sit together, but honestly, I didn't think about trying to break any rules.  When we got on the bus, my friend announced to everyone as loud as she could, "JUSTIN AND MEGAN ARE GOING OUT!"  I was mortified.  I was happy to be slumped in the back of the bus where no one could ask me any questions.

When the ride was over, someone told me that Justin sat with the boys manager the whole time- a girl, who happened to have a huge crush on him.  She even rested her head on his shoulder!  (breaking the Pilgrim Academy 6 inch rule!)  I'm surprised our relationship lasted a whole night.
 "What was I supposed to do!?!?" he asked me when I found out. "She said she was tired."
"Ummmm....not let her rest her head on your shoulder? and tell her that you had a GIRLFRIEND the last hour who you weren't sitting with?!?!"  I said...forgiving him quickly.  Because honestly, he was just too cute and I really really wanted a boyfriend.

Today marks the 15th anniversary of that day.  I've been dating Justin Benson for HALF of my life.

graduation night....no more 6 inch rule!  ;o)

"Dating for 7 1/2 years before you get married isn't fun, kids.  Don't start dating someone when you're fifteen." ...but really, I'm glad I did.  This latter half of my life was way better than the first!