BIG FISH, LITTLE FISH

Seeing every person as the important one.
Topic: Purpose & Service
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Home > Devotional Stories > Big Fish, Little Fish

Numbers. Numbers. Numbers.

Numbers are everywhere. They are how we keep track of just about everything. Checkbook balances. Sports scores. Attendance at an event. Minutes until the meal is done.

What would we do without numbers?

​I was thinking about numbers of fish today. No, I wasn't hungry for fish. Although now that I think about it, I could go for some breaded catfish.

No, I was thinking about the fish in Peter's nets. In the story in Luke 5, Peter had already been fishing all night and had caught nothing. That wasn't a good thing when fishing was your business. But Jesus told Peter to move into deep water and let his nets down again. And Peter's response, after he had whined a little bit, was to say, "OK. But only because you say so." Then the nets came up with so many fish they were breaking.

"Ah, Jesus is to be trusted," we learn.

Success by the numbers, with so many fish the nets were breaking. Lots and lots of little fish.

But what if the nets had only come up with a few fish? What if it had been an easy haul, because there was only a handful of fish in the nets? Would it have been any less of a miracle if Jesus had guided only a dozen fish to Peter's nets? Would Jesus have been any less trustworthy?

We often judge success by the numbers, and it's usually "bigger is better." But Jesus reversed that for me when I was thinking about fish today.

We can sometimes see our lives as very, very small, especially if our influence is on but just a few folks. We count the fish in our nets--the very few fish--and feel like we're not making much of a difference. We go to work. We have a handful of friends. Most of us don't have podiums to stand behind. And we can easily begin to feel like we don't matter much.

Oh, but we do.

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The few fish that we might have are valuable. They are huge in the eyes of God, because He has entrusted them to us! No fish is a little fish in the eyes of God.

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Every fish is a big fish.

See your nets that way today. See every fish in it--every person in your sphere of influence--as utterly and completely valuable in God's eyes. And He has entrusted them to YOU! Though they might be small in numbers, they are big in value.

And like Jesus reminded me this morning. "I would have done what I did for only one person. Will you?"

©2014 Wendi Miller
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