A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a convention in Chicago. In their rush to make their flight, one of the salesmen accidentally knocked over a table in the airport terminal, which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, the salesmen all managed to reach the plane in time for the last boarding call.
All but one! He told his buddies to go on without him and asked one of them to call his wife when they arrived and explain that he was taking a later flight. Then he returned to the booth where the apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did. The 16-year-old sales girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her face in frustration. At the same time she was helplessly groping for her spilled apples, as people swirled about her. No one had stopped, and no one cared about her difficulty.
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 money for the damaged apples. I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly. Are you okay?” She nodded through her tears.
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, “Mister...” He paused and turned back to look into those blind eyes. She continued, “Are you Jesus?”
He stopped in mid-stride, and said, “No miss.” Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight.
What a good example of being kind and helpful. Can each one of you find a way to be kind or helpful to someone this week? If you belong to the Lord Jesus, this would be one way you could do something to please Him—the Saviour who died for you.
ML-04/24/2011