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, 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?”