Bible Stories for the Young
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There was a man named Zacchaeus who lived in Jericho. Zacchaeus was rich, which means he had lots of money and lots of things. Zacchaeus had so many things because he was a take, take, taker.
His job was to collect taxes. But if someone was supposed to pay him one coin, he would take four coins from them.
He just kept taking and taking and taking.
No one liked him because people don’t want a taker as a friend.
One day Zacchaeus saw a crowd of people. He asked a boy, “What’s going on?”
“It’s Jesus!” the boy said. “Jesus is here in Jericho.”
Zacchaeus ran over to the crowd because he wanted to see Jesus too. But one other thing about Zacchaeus… he was sooooo short. Really short.
There was no way he could see Jesus in the crowd of people. He stood on his tip, tip, tippy toes. He jumped up and down to try and see over people’s heads. But, he couldn’t see Jesus at all.
Then he looked down the road and saw a sycamore tree. “I know!” Zacchaeus said. “I will run ahead and climb up high in the tree. Then I will see Jesus as He walks by.”
Zacchaeus ran, ran, ran.
He climb, climb, climbed.
And now, Zacchaeus could see Jesus coming down the road!
When Jesus got to the sycamore tree, he looked up and saw Zacchaeus. And Zacchaeus looked down at Jesus. Jesus smiled at Zacchaeus and said, “I’d really like to come to your house, Zacchaeus. Would you take Me there?” Zaccheus was surprised and smiled.
He climbed down, down, down that tree sooooo fast.
When Zacchaeus stood in front of Jesus, he looked up into His eyes. He saw that Jesus was a give, give, giver.
Suddenly Zacchaeus was very sorry that he had been a take, take, taker. He decided to tell Jesus the truth about himself.
“Jesus, I have lots of stuff at my house because I take, take, take from people and now I see that that is wrong. I am sorry. I want to be a give, give, giver like You. I am going to give away half of all my stuff. If I took a coin from someone that wasn’t mine, I will give them four coins back and tell them I’m sorry.”
Jesus got a big, big, BIG smile on His face. “I came to be friends with people like you, Zacchaeus,” Jesus said. “I can save you because you know your sin makes you lost and you’re sorry and you want to change. I will make you new.”
