9-Feb-25 (Luke 5:1-11)

Today, in our story from the gospels, Jesus meets some fishermen, and he goes out to fish with them. After working all night, they still hadn't caught any fish at all. Now some fishermen will tell you that that isn't the point, but these guys had to catch fish to sell in order to make a living, so they were disappointed, tired, and probably a bit mad.
Jesus tells them to go out into the deep water and let down the nets one more time. They do.
And they suddenly caught so many fish that they needed another boat to carry them all in!
Peter realized that Jesus had done something amazing. How do you feel when someone does something amazing right in front of you? [wait for answers]
These fishermen felt all of that, and they also were afraid. They knew Jesus did this sort of thing because he came from God and they realized that they weren't the holy and good and pure, so they were afraid. Peter even said that Jesus should go away from them because they didn't deserve to be with someone as near to God as Jesus was.
Well Jesus didn't agree with that. Jesus says for them not to be afraid because he wants to be with people just like them; people just like us. And then he says that they should follow him and he'll teach them and they will do amazing things too. And they did. They became the first of his disciples.
We can learn a couple of important things from this story: First, we can learn that Jesus doesn't come just to people who are already really good. He comes to all of us and wants to be with us.
Second, we can learn that, because we follow Jesus, amazing things will happen around us. Maybe we won't see a boat filled with a thousand fish, but we probably will see some grocery carts filled with food for people who need it ... and that's pretty amazing, isn't it?
Let's pray about that.

Prayer

God, we thank you for Jesus, who came to be with each of us to show us that you love us. Help us to realize that you want each of us to learn from you and that, when we do, amazing things will happen. Help us to be a part of doing amazing things for others and for you.
We pray in Jesus' name. AMEN