“Karen’s Notes!
Insights from a Glory-Bound Lady”

Selected Notes
Volume 6 Number 33
#277 “Changed! Changed! Changed!”
August 16th, 2023

How many have ever sung this little chorus?
Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the Savior passed that way
He looked up in the tree.
And he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down!
For I’m going to your house today.
For I’m going to your house today.”

Now that little chorus is going around and around in your mind.

Sometimes in her notes Karen made it clear where she would be speaking. I was reading through some of the notes she was preparing for a ladies’ conference somewhere in New York State in the early 1990s. She apparently was invited to speak several times over the course of the day as she prepared three sessions on particular people in the Bible who met the Lord Jesus. One of the Bible characters she selected was Zacchaeus.

I have enjoyed reading her notes on Zacchaeus as she took the conference attendees to Luke 19:1-10. In her notes, from Luke 19:2-8 she wrote several important things for us to note about this man. The one she emphasized was the transformation of Zacchaeus.

Let me share the verses and then what she wrote. “And he came down, and received Him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, that He was gone to be a guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham” (Luke 19:6-9).

Here’s a brief portion of one of the paragraphs she wrote.

Even though we are not tax collectors in the time of the disciples, we can still relate to the characteristics found in Zacchaeus’ life. A great change was evidenced when he met the Savior. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.”

Let me make this brief observation before you leave and then share something to make you smile.

In her notes, Karen mentions that so many times we emphasize how short he was instead of how big his transformation was. I think she is absolutely right on this. What a change took place at his conversion. Even his wallet was converted! The stingy, cheating, tax collector became very generous. What a wonderful change.

How good this for us today. When the Lord Jesus comes into our lives, He indeed changes us!

You will smile and shake your head as you think, “Only you, Michael. You are the only child in the galaxy that would think this way.

I distinctly remember singing this little song about Zacchaeus when I was a child. The person who was leading the song used her hands and when we came to “a wee little man was he” she held her hands about three or four inches apart. I had such a crazy imagination as a child, I literally thought poor Zacchaeus was only about three inches tall.

It took a while, but eventually I learned that it was not nearly so important the shortness of this formerly crooked tax collector as was the greatness of his change when Christ came into his life.