Friday, May 09, 2008
in Christlikeness

> 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 briefcases, one of these
> salesmen
> inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display 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 good-bye, 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
> back on the table, and helped organize her display.
> 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 $40 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.