Treed

It wasn't until I was in my late twenties that I heard this term. My pastor and friend, Pastor Mac, mentioned one day that he felt like a "treed rabbit."

Not being a hunter but feeling fairly confident that rabbits couldn't climb trees, I asked what it meant to feel like a "treed rabbit." Patiently this great outdoors man explained to me that it meant the rabbit was cornered either by a hound or a hunter and was about to become rabbit stew. The emphasis was on feeling cornered or in this case, treed.

In Luke 19 we meet a second tax collector, Zacchaeus, who knew what it meant to be treed.

We are told that Jesus was near and was going to pass by. Zacchaeus wanted to see him. But we are also told he was short and couldn't see over the heads of the others who wanted to see Jesus. In his desperation to see Jesus, he looked around and noticed a tree that he could climb. Up he went. Perfect seat. He could see everything below him including Jesus as he passed by. But what Zacchaeus didn't count on was that not only could he see Jesus, but Jesus could see him.

You know the song. Jesus looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, you come down here.....for I'm going to your house today."

Tommy Tenney has a great insight into this event. He says that many years before this event happened, perhaps even before both Zacchaeus and Jesus were born, God knew that Jesus would be passing by this place and that Zacchaeus would need a boost up in order to see him.

So God arranged for the wind to blow a seed form a nearby tree to land in this spot. He then assigned an angel to stand guard over this seedling to make sure no one stepped on it or that an animal didn't eat it or someone didn't chop it down for firewood. This tree was going to be the perch used by Zacchaeus to see Jesus. Maybe it didn't happen this way but maybe it did.

God does things like this for His kids all the time. So the next time you feel "treed," look around, it just might be a God thing!

Always in Pursuit!