Bruised Apples

"But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion" (Luke 10:33) Hey Gang, yesterday I was pealing apples for my bride to make apple dumplings and it brought to memory a story that I had tucked away in the archives of my mind.  It centers on a blind girl and a group of salesmen that came face to face in the O'Hara Airport with the blind girl and her display of apples.   Well, as things go, the convention ran over time and they were frantically running through airport, as is the norm.  As they barged through the terminal in route to their gate, they ran into a young lass with a display of apples and spilled the apples all over the terminal floor. Without looking back they continued on to their gate, however, one stopped and saw the girl in the midst of her fallen apples and guilt mixed with compassion flooded into his heart.  When he returned he found the girl frustrated, tears running down her cheeks and groping to find the spilled apples.  He soon discovered that she was totally blind. Do you get the picture?  People running frantically from gate to gate so as to not miss their flight and, in the midst of this confusion,  a blind girl groping to find the apples that provided for her welfare.  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 he noticed that many of the apples had become battered and bruised- those he set aside in another basket. When he finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $20 for the damage we did and turned heading to his gate.  As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister....'  Are you Jesus?"     He stopped, frozen in time! As he proceeded to his gate her words penetrated deep into his soul.     Have you ever been in a situation where people mistake you for Jesus?  Think about that.  Is that not our calling?    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 and have surrendered our lives to Him, should we not look like Him?  are we not the apple of His eye.  Have we not been bruised, as those apples that rolled around that terminal floor were damaged?  Did He not love us so much that He came to earth to die on a hideous cross to break the bondage of sin that held us captive? Soooo, We will never be worth the price he paid, but let's start living like we are little Christs. Blessings,  Gramps