“I won’t eat it!” my 6-year-old brother defiantly resolved. Caleb was refering to a perfectly round, deliciously juicy green apple (one of his favorites), but the apple contained one flaw he refused to ignore- a large, discolored bruise right smack-dab in the middle of the apple. Little mister made this statement just as my family was pulling out of our driveway on the way to church.
“Eat around the bruise,” I advised, but Caleb had other ideas.
“No,” he declared, “I have to get a new one.”
“Just eat around the bruise,” our dad shouted to the back of the car, but Caleb still refused. He asked to drive back home so that he could retreive a different apple, but we had already been driving for a few minutes and we needed to get to church. There was no time to waste! Caleb began whining about his misfortune. Judging based on the current reality, the car drive to church, although short, was going to be an unpleasant one.
Enthusiatic and good-natured, Isaac, one of my other brothers, spoke up, “Give me your apple, Caleb.” He passed his apple to Isaac in the row of car seats in front of his. Crunch! Isaac passed the apple back to Caleb with a bite removed from it exactly where the bruise had been.
Caleb smiled, “You ate the bruise?”
“Yeah, and it was a good bite,” Isaac cheerfully replied. Sitting across from Caleb, I smiled, too. What a sweet act of true brotherly love! That is certainly something Jesus would have done, I thought to myself. In general, it would be intimidating to intentionally eat a discolored, gross-looking (and potentialy gross-tasting) spot of an apple. I sure wouldn’t choose to eat an apple bruise, especially out of love for my brother. Out of everyone, Isaac often doesn’t eat foods if they look gross to him even if they taste good, but he cheerfully ate the bruise of Caleb’s apple out of love for him.
This loving action greatly encouraged me, and I hope it encourages you. Next time a situation like that arises, what will you and I do to show love to others the way that Jesus would? Jesus’ example of love is humble and selfless. We can love others because He first loved us. He lived the perfect life we never could and experienced all of God’s wrath for our sin on a cross so that anyone who believes in Him will live eternally in Heaven with Him. the Holy Spirit lives inside His believers, right now! If Jesus was willing to love us in that way when we didn’t deserve it, we can surely love our brother by eating out the bruise of his apple.
