Today you should read: Luke 19:1-10
Many of us have heard the story of the wee little man who was seen by Jesus up in the tree. We have also often heard and focused on Zacchaeus’ profession and background. So today let’s look at it from a little different perspective.
You likely have a neighbor that lives next door, and if you don’t you probably have someone or multiple people that you come in contact with on a daily basis. With that said, how many times have you interacted with that person or those people in the last week? What have those interactions consisted of? When Jesus calls out to Zacchaeus, He goes to his home for dinner. He steps into his life. But He did this for a purpose. That purpose was the Gospel.
Many of us would make any number of excuses to not interact with those around us let alone share the Gospel. This is not how it should be. Nobody wanted to be friends with Zacchaeus because he was a tax collector and likely had done wrong to everyone. So it is from a human perspective understandable that nobody wanted to hang out with him. But Jesus saw Him as more than a bad person. He saw him as a lost person who needed life!
When we think about the people we see regularly around us, we make excuses to not interact with them because we are seeing them wrongly. We may or may not see them as good or bad, but the bottom line is that we don’t see them as a person in need. C.S Lewis says this, “It does one good to see the fine side of people we’ve always seen the worst in.”
So no matter how you have viewed your “neighbors” in the past, how about today you take the opportunity to see a different side. A side that Jesus sees. A side that is in desperate need of a savior.
By: Dakota Gragg — Student Ministry Associate
JumpstartCPC.com 
Thanks Dakota for today’s jumpstart, Zacchaeus is one of my favorite stories, remembering as a child I loved, even though Zacchaeus was small in body, but very bold in determination. My prayer is that I am just as bold in seeking the Lord in all I do and say.