A few years ago a group of salesmen
went to a regional sales convention in
Chicago. They had assured their wives
that they would be home in plenty of
time for Friday night's dinner.
In their rush, with tickets and
brief-cases, one of these salesmen
inadvertently kicked over a table
which held a display of baskets of
apples. Apples flew everywhere.
Without stopping or looking back, they
all managed to reach the plane in time
for their nearly missed boarding.
All but one. He paused, took a deep
breath, got in touch with his
feelings, and experienced a twinge of
compassion for the girl whose apple
stand had been overturned.
He told his buddies to go on without
him, waved goodbye, told one of them
to call his wife when they arrived at
their home destination and explain
his taking a later flight. Then he
returned to the terminal where the
apples were all over the terminal
floor. He was glad he did.
The 16 year old girl was totally
blind! She was softly crying, tears
running down her cheeks in
frustration, and at the same time
helplessly groping for her spilled produce as
the crowd swirled about her, no one
stopping, and no one to care for her
plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with
her, gathered up the apples, put them
into the baskets, and helped set the
display up once more. As he did this,
he noticed that many of them had
become battered and bruised; these he
set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out
his wallet and said to the girl, here,
please take this $20 for the damage
we did. Are you okay?"
She nodded through her tears. He
continued on with, "I hope we
didn't spoil your day too badly."
As the salesman started to walk away,
the bewildered blind girl called out
to him, "Mister...." He
paused and turned to look back into
those blind eyes.
She continued, "Are you
Jesus?"
He stopped in mid-stride, and he
wondered. Then slowly he made his way to
catch the later flight with that
question burning and bouncing about in
his soul: "Are you Jesus?"
Do people mistake you for Jesus?
That's our destiny, is it not? To be
so much like Jesus that people
cannot tell the difference as we live
and interact with a world that is
blind to His love, life, and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should
live, walk and act as He would. Knowing
Him is more than simply quoting
Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life
unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye even
though we, too, have been bruised by a
fall.
He stopped what He was doing and
picked you and me up on a hill called
Calvary and paid the price in full for our
damaged fruit.
Let us live like we are worth the
price He paid.
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