Matthew 4:18-22

¹⁸ As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishers. ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹ As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

The fish provided folks in the time of Jesus a wonderful symbol.

Several of the disciples started out as fishermen. We can all recognize a fish when we see it. The early Christians, who needed to hide their faith from the Roman authorities, would often draw half of a crude fish symbol in the dust when talking with people they suspected of also being Christian, who confirmed their identity as fellow Jesus followers as they completed the line drawing.

And the Greek word for fish in the New Testament is icqus.

If we take each letter and use them as the first letter in a word, this Greek word can give us the faith statement:

I-Jesus
χ-Christ
Θ-God’s
∪-Son
S-Savior

That’s a mouthful from a little creature.

Prayer

We thank you, Lord, that we are people who affirm that Jesus Christ is God’s Son and our Savior. Let me live today so that other people might see that truth in me. Amen.