What would we have done?

[Teresa]

   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?' 

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.

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 up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in
full for our damaged fruit.

[pam]

Amen

[Judy Harder]

Teresa,

What an uplifting story. Thank you.
God bless