Fish and Flannelgraphs

Today at the office we were reading the story of Jesus calling His disciples. We all know the story from the Sunday School flannel-graph.
  Jesus walked up to the fishermen and said, "Hey follow me and I will make you fishers of men!" I think there are probably Sunday School songs about it too. Like this one. . .



Gosh that is a terribly creepy song. Please don't use that at your church.

. . . .

Annnnnywaysssssss. . .


Anyways the version we read this morning was in Luke and there was something I hadn't noticed before. This is the version where he tells the guys to put their net on the other side of the boat and when they do they get so many fish they can barely pull it in. And then Jesus says, "Follow me" and they pick up their stuff and walk away (that's the Mer-notes version).

I've always known about the "put your net on the other side" part and figured it was just Jesus showing them He was Jesus. But this morning a thought occurred to me:

It was a huge sacrifice for these men to leave their family business to follow Jesus. Without their physical efforts their families were probably going to suffer financially. So did Jesus perhaps enable them to catch so many fish before they left so that the family business could be sustained without them, due to the profit of that one catch?

I have never thought of it like that and I could be wrong, but it would make sense to me that Jesus would provide for the family since their sons chose to follow Him. It makes sense to me because God always provides when we choose to drop everything and follow Him.

I like the thought of Jesus taking care of those guys because of their faithfulness. It has always been a theme of faith for me. . .God's provision. Just like the fishermen God has never left me stranded because I chose to follow Him. I have always had food to eat and a roof over my head. And even when it doesn't make sense there always seems to be enough. 

 How cool that God would give in abundance because of their willingness to give up everything. 

 What is it going to take for us to cast our net on the other side of the boat? Do we really believe that God will provide if we follow Him? What will it take for you to give up everything and believe that it is going to be ok? 

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