Rosemead Kiwanis Club
"Serving the Community Since 1945"
FAX OF
LIFE
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Rosemead Kiwanis Club "Serving the Community Since 1945" |
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FAX OF LIFE
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The Fax of Life
A weekly inspiration, courtesy of the Kiwanis Club of Scott's Valley
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. Plane reservations were made for the
1:00 hour and the weather was clear. All seemed fine as the day
began. But the session that was supposed to be out before noon ran
late and it was a frenzy to catch taxis and limos to the airport. In
their rush with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen
inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples,
being sold by a young girl. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping
or looking back, they rushed on, all managing to reach their planes
in time for their nearly missed boarding.
All, that is, but one. He paused and took a deep breath, getting in touch with his feelings;
He
experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.He told his buddies to go on without him;
As he
waved good-bye he asked one from his own city to call his wife when he arrived in their home townHe asked him to 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;
At the same time she
was helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her,
no one was
stopping, no one was caring 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,
"Mister, 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 .
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.
And that means, from time to time, perhaps even rather frequently,
Cleaning up tables of spilled apples that really aren't our responsibility.
Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.
The Kiwanis Club of Scott's Valley is a community service club and meets at the Heavenly Café in Scott's Valley on Wednesdays at 7 am. You are welcome to join us anytime.
We do not charge anyone for receiving the "Fax;" however. if you have been encouraged in any way by the message, pass it on by saying something encouraging to someone else during the week.