“Your next appointment is here to meet with you, Pastor Ed.” said The Church Secretary.

Now, Pastors have all kinds of appointments.  Sometimes they must meet with a family to plan a funeral because someone died.  Those are sad appointments.  And some appointments are to plan for a wedding, or maybe a Baptism.  They have appointments with the chairperson of the Finance Committee to plan the budget.  Pastors have lots of appointments.  It’s a good thing that The Church Secretary keeps it all organized. 

“Ahhh!  This one is my favorite kind of appointment!” said the Pastor.  “Send them in!”

The Church Secretary showed Uncle Floyd and Barabas into the office.   Barabas is here to see Pastor Ed because he is working on his God And Me Award for Cub Scouts.

“Here is my notebook.  I did all the assignments for this week.”

Pastor Ed carefully looked at each page. One page particularly interested Pastor Ed.  It was this one. (hold up page)    “Tell me about this drawing.”

Barabas looked at it and said “Oh that is about the time that the disciples were fishing but didn’t catch anything.  But then Jesus told them to go back out and try again and they caught so many fish that their nets began to break.”

Pastor Ed studied the drawing.  “Do you remember what Jesus said to the disciples after they caught all those fish? 

Barabas answered “Yeah, something about now they would be catching people instead of fish.”  “What do you suppose that means?” asked Pastor Ed.

Barabas thought about how to answer that question.  He thought of his drawing with a fish net bursting with fish and had an idea.  “Can I draw the answer?” he asked.

“By all means.” said Pastor Ed.  Barabas got situated with his notebook and pencils and drew.  And drew and drew.  Sometimes when Barabas draws, he gets so far into the idea that he forgets about time and other people in the room.  And that is what happened now.  

Barabas thought about how excited the disciples must have been to get so many fish that the nets were breaking and he thought about how Jesus wants us to get that excited about catching people and bringing them to church.

This is the drawing that Barabas made.  It is a church bursting full of people.  He showed it to Pastor Ed. 

“That is excellent!” said Pastor Ed.  “I reckon he’s a good artist.” said Uncle Floyd, beaming with pride for his nephew.

“See you next month and keep up the good work!” said Pastor Ed. 

“I promise to do my best.” said Barabas as he tucked the notebook under his arm and left the office.

Pastor Ed really likes to meet with young people working on their scout awards.  He made a note for The Church Secretary to put Barabas down for March 5 at 6:30pm.  Then Pastor Ed smiled and thought that Barabas and his art work will be a good “catcher of people”!

THE END

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