In a hurry to catch their flights after a convention in Chicago, a group of salesmen, with their tickets and briefcases, rushed
to their gate. One of the 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.
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 by 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 in full for our damaged fruit. Let's start living like we are
worth the price He paid.
About the Author
Author unknown. Variations of this story appears in dozens of sites and message boards with no author credits.
