Apples
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 in full for our
damaged fruit.
Let's start living like we are worth the price He
paid.
Start today!
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