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

anothe r 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?’ 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 up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in

full for our damaged fruit.

Please share this, {IF you feel led to do so}.

Sometimes we just take things for granted, when we really