Before settling into creative entrepreneurship, I lived a thousand lives in my work. As a young adult, I worked in retail, childcare, customer service, and as a barista for a quaint coffee shop in my hometown. As different as those jobs were from one another, every job I\u2019ve had equipped me with some valuable skills, some of which I still use today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of those skills is an unmatched awareness of my surroundings. I gained that ability during an afternoon spent at the playground. I worked as a nanny at the time, caring for a 5-year-old. While at the playground, I took my eyes off the child for what seemed like a millisecond and lost sight of her. I panicked\u2014the mere thought of explaining to the child\u2019s parents that I lost their precious cargo made me short of breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine my relief when I saw her sitting across from me. Where she was the entire time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I often think of that day, but now, I think of it as a mom of two. What if my children were the ones who were lost? There\u2019s nothing I would want more than to have someone find them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same goes for the level of trust God has given us. As disciples, we\u2019ve been entrusted with a responsibility for those God has appointed to us. We live in a world where we are consumed by our lives, where the cares of our world can overwhelm our ability to see other people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, there are numerous stories in the Bible that tell of Jesus\u2019s specific ability to see others. This is true of our reading today with the story of a rich man, Zacchaeus. While Zacchaeus was eager to see Jesus, Jesus sought Zacchaeus out to spend time with him. Jesus noticed him before Zacchaeus even had a chance to speak. When Jesus made Himself available to Zacchaeus, the rich man received Him joyfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.\u201d Just as God seeks us, we are called as members of the body of Christ to seek those who are lost. Because the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18\u201320) commands us to spread the gospel to all the nations of the world, this includes our own versions of Zacchaeus, the people around us who are in need of Jesus\u2019s love. We make room for the lost, as Jesus made room for each of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before settling into creative entrepreneurship, I lived a thousand lives in my work. As a young adult, I worked in retail, childcare, customer service, and as a barista for a quaint coffee shop in my hometown. As different as those jobs were from one another, every job I\u2019ve had equipped me with some valuable skills, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":71639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-makingroom24"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71656],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"MAKING ROOM FOR THE LOST<\/b> Before settling into creative entrepreneurship, I lived a thousand lives in my work. As a young adult, I worked in retail, childcare, customer service, and as a barista for a quaint coffee shop in my hometown. As different as those jobs were from one another, every job I\u2019ve had equipped me with some valuable skills, some of which I still use today.<\/p> One of those skills is an unmatched awareness of my surroundings. I gained that ability during an afternoon spent at the playground. I worked as a nanny at the time, caring for a 5-year-old. While at the playground, I took my eyes off the child for what seemed like a millisecond and lost sight of her. I panicked\u2014the mere thought of explaining to the child\u2019s parents that I lost their precious cargo made me short of breath.<\/p> Imagine my relief when I saw her sitting across from me. Where she was the entire time.<\/p> I often think of that day, but now, I think of it as a mom of two. What if my children were the ones who were lost? There\u2019s nothing I would want more than to have someone find them.<\/p> The same goes for the level of trust God has given us. As disciples, we\u2019ve been entrusted with a responsibility for those God has appointed to us. We live in a world where we are consumed by our lives, where the cares of our world can overwhelm our ability to see other people.<\/p> On the other hand, there are numerous stories in the Bible that tell of Jesus\u2019s specific ability to see others. This is true of our reading today with the story of a rich man, Zacchaeus. While Zacchaeus was eager to see Jesus, Jesus sought Zacchaeus out to spend time with him. Jesus noticed him before Zacchaeus even had a chance to speak. When Jesus made Himself available to Zacchaeus, the rich man received Him joyfully.<\/p> \u201cFor the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.\u201d\u00a0 Just as God seeks us, we are called as members of the body of Christ to seek those who are lost. Because the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18\u201320) commands us to spread the gospel to all the nations of the world, this includes our own versions of Zacchaeus, the people around us who are in need of Jesus\u2019s love. We make room for the lost, as Jesus made room for each of us.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"12","scripture":"Psalm 25:3, Psalm 28:6-9, Jonah 3:1-10, Luke 19:1-10, Acts 9:17-31, Romans 5:6-11","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2014Luke 19:10<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\r\nby Charlotte Betts<\/i>
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\u2014Luke 19:10<\/em><\/p>
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