The Apple of
His Eye
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, 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.