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 through the airport terminal, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently tipped 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, 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, and told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination to explain why he was taking a later flight. Then he returned to the place where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did.
The 16-year-old girl who was selling apples was blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, helplessly groping for her apples 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; he set them 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, 'Sir...' He paused and turned to look back into the blind girl’s eyes. She asked, 'Are you Jesus?' He stopped in mid-stride, awe struck by her words. “No, but I try to imitate the things He would do.’
Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: 'Are you Jesus?' What seemed like a simple act of kindness became so much more.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 today. Even something as simple as picking up some apples.
Are you Jesus?
4 comments:
This almost made my cry... must be time for a mission trip :)
See you REAL SOON!! (like a week and a half!)
Its sad that so many walked by this girl and did not have time to help. There must be a dozen lessons we could get from this story. I hope I would have been the one who would have stopped. Thanks for a good story to think about.
Great story. Even though I am pumped about our trip this tells me that being Jesus happens all of the time and not just in Honduras. We need to keep our eyes open!
Singing Gringa Jenny ...AAAAAAh (high note), I think your contribution to our next small group luncheon should be chicken feet. I am soooo impressed that you have added to your "Three Ingredients or Less" cookbook. Of course, the meal was followed by hair braiding and mani-pedies all around! You are one dynamic diva for Jesus, so keep sparkling for the Lord!
GwG,
Sherry K.
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