Zacchaues Tree at Jericho
I'll let you follow the biblical story by following the link above but the significance of all this for me is that my father has always used nicknames, pet names really to describe people and particularly to family. My son Ian is "Froggy" or "Frogman", daughter Chelsea id "Chelser" or "Chelsea Cheeseburger", my niece Loren is "Rose" and it went on and on. I have had dozens of those nicknames like"Shit-Head" (yea that wasn't my favorite but I was 16, 17 at the time and often acted like one, still it was not his finest hour!) or Tumper but for some odd reason they were mostly biblical. Like Isaiah, Jeremiah, the obvious Doubting-Thomas, Job to...you guessed it: Zaccaeus.
At the house I grew up in from age 5 or so until I moved to Michigan at age 21 we had a huge Sycamore Tree in the front yard. The tree that Zaccaeus climbed at Jericho was a Sycamore Tree. Ironically when I was a boy not only was I a tree climber I was also a kid who would climb that Sycamore Tree out in front of the house and sit up there quite often. I'd even take books up there. When I wanted to hide, up the Sycamore Tree, way up where the thick branches and huge leaves hid me from view...
That tree was a living, breathing entity to me. Almost like the brother I never had. It was safe for me up there...honestly it was one of the few places in this terrifying world where I actually did feel safe!
I don't know exactly when I stopped climbing that tree but I know that I was still doing it periodically even late in my high school career. When I was beaten and sexually assaulted at age 12, in the aftermath of that traumatic experience I do recall that I would go and sit up there for very long periods of time...
My parents moved from that house and sold it when they built their retirement home here on the island in the mid 1990's. I've been back through there periodically and I always felt the attachment to that tree which had gotten to be gigantic. Sometime around 2002, 2003 the current owners took it down and at the risk of sounding a bit "batty', I realized it had been cut down before before i saw it gone with my own eyes.
Sometimes I think the Creator puts things in our lives that are guides or helpers along our journey of life. I know that old Sycamore Tree was there for me...and once I no longer "needed it" it was taken away. OK, sounds like a stretch perhaps but I do not doubt for a minute that tree was there to guide and comfort me during some really rough and tumble times in my life. When I was beaten and abused, it sheltered me from more harm with it's majestic branches and made me feel safe again when I had no other reason to feel that way. It was my sanctuary, my church and now I know it was my first connection portal to God...
So occasionally, it's somewhat rare now but my Dad will pull that old nickname out, dust it off and call me Zaccaeus...then ask he will ask me where my old Sycamore Tree went! And I can't help but smile because I know exactly where that old tree of mine is: In Heaven.
