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. In their rush to catch the plane home,
and with tickets and briefcases in hand, one of the men
accidentally
kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples
flew everywhere. Without stopping or even
looking back, they all managed to reach their 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, and told one of them to call
his wife when they arrived home 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 girl
with the apple cart was 16 years old, and was totally blind!
She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in
frustration as she helplessly groped for her spilled
produce. The crowd swirled around her with no one stopping
to help, or even 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 finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to
the girl: “Here, please take this $50 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 walked
away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him:
“Mister…” He paused and turned to look back into
those sightless eyes. She continued: “Are you
Jesus?” He stopped in mid-stride…and he wondered. He
went back and softly said “No, I am nothing like Jesus
– He is good, kind, caring, loving and would never have
bumped into your display in
the first place. The girl gently nodded, and said “I
only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the
apples. He sent you to help me. Thank you for hearing Jesus,
Mister.” 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 you,
too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was
doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and
paid in full for our
damaged fruit.
The nicest place to be is in someone’s thoughts;
the safest place to be is in someone’s prayers; and the
very best place to be is…in the hands of God.
We thank Pastor Denzell Teague of Albuquerque, NM for sending this in!
