In Luke, the Savior is walking toward Jerusalem.  He visits villages and cities and meets people like Zaccheus, a short rich tax collector and outcast, who has no qualifications to attract Jesus’ attention.  

 

But Zaccheus becomes a seeker in the treetops, eager to have an encounter with Jesus.   When Jesus did attend to him, he said, “Come down, I must come to your house today.”  Can you imagine?!  Not only a personal conversation or personally noticed by Jesus, but a divine invitation to come to his house.

 

I tried an icon-like image of Christ peering up into the tree  with the gold-leaf nimbus,  historically used in early Christian art, to define Christ.  The tree was reduced to impressionistic color,  with no competition in recognizing the Redeemer.  This is my first attempt at visualizing Christ in a portrait and it gave me an intimate encounter myself, imagining Christ looking up at me like He did Zaccheus so long ago.  

 

Watercolor and gold leaf on paper

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. Luke 19:10