Who Am I?

By Johnny Hester
     According to a story I read, during the final days at Denver's old Stapleton airport, a crowded United flight was canceled. A single agent was rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and demanded, ":I HAVE to be on this flight AND it HAS to be FIRST CLASS!
     The agent replied, "I'm sorry sir. I'll be happy to try to help you, but I've got to help these folks first, and I'm sure we'll be able to work something out." The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, "Do you have any idea WHO I AM?"
     Without hesitating, the gate agent smiled and grabbed her public address microphone. "May I have your attention please?" she began, her voice bellowing throughout the terminal. "We have a passenger here at the gate WHO DOES NOT KNOW HOW IE IS. If anyone can hlep him find his identity, please come to gate 17."
     To say the least, this man overestimated his own importance. The word of God warns, "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith." (Rom. 12:3).
     Each of us would do well to remember that even at our best "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away" (Isa. 64:6).
     We are all undeserving of the mercy and grace that God has bestowed upon us through the loving gift of His Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16-17). It is only through His virtue that I have become a person of value. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1).
     Who am I? I am a child of God! But it is through no merit of my own. As a baptized believer I simply answered "yes" to his loving offer - the gift of salvation. With that truth always in our minds, let us all live in genuine thankfulness for his amazing grace.

- Johnny Hester preaches for the Shady Acres church of Christ, in Sikeston, MO.  He may be contacted through the church's website at http://www.shadyacreschurch.com