Following Him

Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:10-11)

They just left everything and followed.

Pretty big leap of faith.

Could I do it?

I'd like to think I could. But then, I think if Jesus asks were to come and ask this of me - I would know he was someone who could be trusted. I would know he was God.

They didn't know Jesus was the Son of God. They didn't know he would rise from the dead. He was a preacher; a teacher. He worked miracles and told stories. He lived an itinerant life, with no visible means of support - he didn't appear to be pursuing a career as a carpenter at this time.

And yet they left everything and followed him.

They left families.

They left jobs.

They left houses.

And for what? A period of time on the road - living on what people donated; a period of time on the run from the authorities after their leader was executed, and ultimately horrific deaths.

This couldn't have been an easy decision to make. There weren't a lot of items in the plus column. But they did it anyway.

Could we?

In thinking about this once, I thought about Simon Peter's wife. What would she have had to say about all this. And I wrote a story about her called "The Fisherman's Wife."

Note: I had always figured he must have a wife, because he had a mother-in-law - but just the other day I was reading something about Plymouth Colony and learned that "father-in-law" was sometimes said when what we would refer to as "step-father" was meant. Perhaps that was true in Simon Peter's case as well - since no wife is ever mentioned.