Practice 1 of 13
Notice people
Love starts with seeing someone.
Key points
- The practice: Love starts with seeing someone.
- Try this week: Once a day, really look at someone you usually walk past: a cashier, a coworker, a neighbor. Use their name if you know it.
- The good news: Jesus noticed you first. Before you did anything, he knew your name and wanted a place at your table.
What Jesus did and taught
The man in the tree
A crowd lines the road to see Jesus. Zacchaeus is too short to see, so he climbs a tree.
Everyone in town dislikes him. He collects taxes for the Romans and takes extra for himself.
Jesus stops under the tree. He looks up. He calls Zacchaeus by name, and invites himself to dinner.
Before the meal is over, Zacchaeus gives half of what he owns to the poor.
“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
Luke 19:5
Find it: Luke 19:1–10
Read Luke 19:1–10
1 He entered and was passing through Jericho. 2 There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, and couldn’t because of the crowd, because he was short. 4 He ran on ahead, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 He hurried, came down, and received him joyfully. 7 When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, “He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner.” 8 Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”
World English Bible, public domain. The whole chapter on Free Scripture → · Read in the NRSVue, the ELCA’s standard translation →
Why it matters
A lot of people feel invisible. Being noticed tells someone they matter.
Jesus noticed first. The change came after.
Try this week
Once a day, really look at someone you usually walk past: a cashier, a coworker, a neighbor. Use their name if you know it.
Low-energy week? Learn one new name this week.
A question to carry
Who do you walk past without really seeing?
With kids
Play “I spy someone who could use a smile.” Then smile at them.
A story to step inside, on FablePixels
Go deeper
The good news
Jesus noticed you first. Before you did anything, he knew your name and wanted a place at your table.
You don’t earn anything by doing this practice. Why it starts with grace