A few days before leaving Colorado for Pennsylvania, my dad made me two things from his 3d printer: A miniature TARDIS (blue of course) and an orange squirrel that I named Zacchaeus.

For those who don’t know or need a refresher, Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector during the time of Jesus’ teachings. One day, Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus over the crowd of people. Jesus saw him, called him by name, and told him that he wanted to visit his house. The crowd was shocked because tax collectors were despised for working for the Roman Empire and not the Jewish community.

The Sycamore House doesn’t have a sycamore house to climb in our garden (although we do have some lilies!), but we are still very much like our man in the story from Luke. Every day or nearly every day, we are trying to find ourselves and our vocations. And sometimes we need some help. Sometimes like Zacchaeus, we need something to lift us over the crowd. Sometimes we call on the help of our wonderful and effervescent director. Sometimes we call on each other. And then sometimes we make orange squirrels.

My little version of Zacchaeus does not directly help me with my vocation. In fact, most of the times he is stuck in a bag or half forgotten on the coffee table. He helps motivate me and remind me of my dad, people back home, and callers that use our helpline. He reminds me of why I am here, which is sometimes easy to forget when I’m tired out by duties and difficult calls.

Last week, he traveled with me to Colorado for my winter break and helped me take pictures of the snow and mountains for my housemates.

Next week, he is going to be placed in a seat of honor on my desk at work. Will he physically help me with calls and other duties? Probably not. But it will be nice to have him there, a companion along the way.

And for those who are wondering, I had a TARDIS made because Doctor Who, like bowties, is cool.