What would you do if a complete stranger came up to you and invited himself to dinner at your house? How would you react? I know that my reaction would not be a favorable one. First of all, I would respond with something like...."What? Are you nuts? You can't come to my house! Go away!" If he continued to push the issue with me I would continue to say no, citing that my house isn't ready to receive guests....that there are dirty dishes in the sink, the kids toys are strewn all over the house. I just can't invite someone into a dirty house.
Yet, that is just what Jesus did with Zacchaeus. Jesus saw Zacchaeus sitting up in the tree, told him to come down from the tree, and then proceeded to invite himself over to Zacchaeus' house for dinner.(Luke 19:1-10). Zacchaeus, however, did not react the way I would have if someone invited himself to my house. Zacchaeus "came down and quickly received him with joy". Not only did Zacchaeus not have an adverse reaction to Jesus' invitation, but Zacchaeus received Jesus with joy.
Jesus is inviting Himself into my life--into all of our lives. Yes, oftentimes He comes as an uninvited guest. How often do I outright reject Jesus' invitation? How often do I say that Jesus' invitation is just plain crazy and send Him away? How often do I make excuses, saying that I am a sinner and unworthy of his welcome? Yet, there He is, inviting Himself into my life every day. I wake up each morning with Jesus calling to me, inviting Himself into my life. Oftentimes I just ignore Him. Sometimes I tell Him to go away or say that my life is too messy.
On those occasions that I do allow Jesus into my life, that I do accept His invitation to enter in, I receive graces and blessings beyond all that I can imagine. It makes me wonder why I don't invite Him in more often.
Jesus, today, I invite you into my life. My life is dirty. It's filthy, really. And yet, despite my shortcomings, despite my sin, I invite you in. Come Lord, into my life, for you have "come to seek and save the lost."
1 comment:
I love this. As soon as I started reading it I thought to myself: I want to write about this too!
Then I figured that I couldn't do it justice without seeming as though I was "copying" you...so I just copy/pasted your post into my blog and gave you full linkage to this post and to your blog in general.
I hope you don't mind. ;)
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