ARE
YOU JESUS ?
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. Well, as such things go, one thing
led to
another. The sales manager went longer than anticipated and the
meeting ran
overtime. Their flights were scheduled to leave out of Chicago's
O'Hare
Airport, and they had to race pell mell to the airport.
With tickets
in
hand, they barged through the terminal to catch their flight back
home.
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.
AUTHOR UNKNOWN TO ME
MUSIC . . . I HAVE DECIDED TO FOLLOW
JESUS
"YOU" may be the
only "BIBLE" |
some folks will
ever see! |
|