Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 4:19
Every so often I make the sacrifice of saying to my wife: “Honey! Would you like to go shopping?” My wife is a shopper, or as she would call it, a looker. As you noted in my opening statement, I am not.
I ask: “Where would you like to go?” She replies: “Nowhere in particular.” So I say before we leave the driveway, “Let me know because the light is only 50 yards up the street and I have to know which way to go.” You know the process. We get to the store and start the meandering. Three minutes later I lose track of her. If your wife is as short as mine is, you understand what I mean when I say “no can see for me”. The circuitous route entailed in trying to cover all the bases in locating her makes me wonder why I am doing this. It takes a while, and we may or may not have purchased anything, but she had a good time. However, in the event we decided to make a purchase, I gather the goods and we head for the cashier. Houdini could not have done a better job; she has disappeared.
Remember how I told you recently that we went on a cruise? Try following your wife on board a ship. To her, it is no problem; she loves to study people. For me, it is a matter of how can one person disappear so quickly in a confined area? Please understand that I think I do quite well in keeping my mouth shut and my demeanor in a balanced perspective when we engage in one of these shopping trips.
Have you ever thought about following Jesus? It can be a frustrating experience at times, only because I am uncertain as to where He is leading me and what can I expect around the next turn. After all, I am a “take charge person”. No, I am not nearly as bad as my father, but I have problems when it comes to just following and trusting. You would think that after fifty years I would have learned that every experience of following Him has ended in a favorable fashion to me, but for some reason that thick block above my shoulders seems to forget all too soon.
The disciples were told to follow Him and they did. They had their ups and downs and eventually some of them had to pay the price of martyrdom. But imagine being led into the presence of the Father in Heaven and hearing the equivalent of: “Father! I called him to follow me. He did.” He might rehearse some of their experiences along the way, not that it would be necessary for the Father knew all about them, every step of the way.
Jesus said: “Follow Me, and I will make you…” (Matthew 4:19) He has been “making me” and will do so until He says to me “Welcome home!” Won’t you join me in following our Lord and Savior?
ETCetera 