One day, Jesus was near a lake. A lot of people wanted to hear Him talking. They got so close to Him that it was hard to talk!  He saw some fishermen who were done fishing for the day. He asked Simon, one of them, to take him out in his boat. Simon did, so Jesus could talk to all the people. When He stopped talking, Jesus told Simon to go out in the deep. They did. Then Jesus told Simon to go fishing. Simon told Jesus that they had been fishing all night and did not catch any fish. He did not think they would catch any now. But he obeyed Jesus and put his net in the water.

Simon pulled the net to get it out of the water. He pulled and pulled and pulled. It could not come up! It was full of fish! Simon called his brother Andrew to help. They could not get the net up. They called their friends James and John to bring their boat and help. All four men pulled up the net and filled up both boats! The boats were so full that they started to sink.

Simon was scared. He knew that Jesus was holy, because Jesus had done the miracle of making the fish come into the net. Simon told Jesus to go away from him because he was not holy. 

Jesus told Simon that he should not be scared. He said that Simon should follow Him. He said Simon would help people follow God instead of catching fish. When the boats got back to the shore, the men left all of their stuff. Instead, they followed Jesus.

1. Simon and Andrew were fishermen. Did you ever go fishing?

2. They used a net. The net was lowered into the water to catch the fish. If you went fishing, how did you try to catch fish?

3. Sometimes you wait for a very long time before you catch a fish. Simon and Andrew had fished all night and caught nothing. But after Jesus told them to put the nets back in the water, what happened?

4. Jesus told them they would be gathering men to follow Jesus, just as they had gathered the fish, when they caught them.