INSTRUCTIONS: Boys and girls work in their own personal space and do motions and movements to everything they can. No talking, only movement.)
The news spread so quickly! People told everyone they knew! Jesus was in town!
Zacchaeus, the tax collector, heard the news. He got up from his tax-collecting table so quickly he spilled his money. He bent down to pick it all up.
Then he ran to where the crowd had gathered.
He had to get to the very front or he wouldn't be able to see Jesus because Zacchaeus was very, very, very short.
What was he going to do?
He tried squeezing between people but nobody would budge to let Zaccheaus through.
He tapped a man on the shoulder and said, "May I get through please?" but the man shook his head no.
Suddenly Zacchaeus had an idea!
He ran and ran and ran along the edge of the crowd.
He found a large sycamore tree with big branches all the way across the road. He climbed up the tree and crawled across the branch that stretched over the road.
His knees got scratched but he didn't care. Now he'd see Jesus!
Did all that effort pay off? YES!
Jesus looked up into the tree and told Zacchaeus to climb down out of the tree.
Jesus went to Zacchaeus' house and his life was changed. He invited Jesus into his life.
He went from being a bad tax collector who cheated people out of their money to a person who ws honest.