Everyone Can Be Andrew

If you have a sibling, then chances are you’ve experienced the amazingly wonderful and joy-filled feeling of telling your brother or sister the most exciting thing you have ever heard. Sharing makes it even more real, more important and more meaningful. Maybe it was staying up late the night before Christmas and you finally discovered the extra stash of Christmas candy. Perhaps you were voted captain of the soccer team and couldn’t wait to tell your sister that night when he called from college. Whatever the news, you shared it. And it didn’t seem really real until you said the words out loud to someone important to you.

Andrew and Peter, two of Jesus’ good friends and of the Disciples, seemed to be brothers like that. In the one of the first times we see them interacting in the Bible, we see one running up to the other to share some news, and it’s not about secret candy or voted-team-captain news. It’s life-changing, world-history-changing, eternally-changing news. They may not have known exactly what it meant at the time, but it was big.

“Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the first two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.”
-John 1:41-42

Little details tell us so much in Scripture. Andrew was one of the first in their group to hear about Jesus. But that’s not all. Andrew was also one of the first to follow this man, this Messiah that had been promised for generations. And the little detail that the Bible includes is that he immediately told his brother. His brother named Peter.

Peter.

Peter, who went on to be one of Jesus’ best friends. Peter, who was told by Jesus himself that he’d be the rock on which the Church would be built. Peter, who had a temper. Peter, who was a leader. Peter, who would write part of the Bible. Peter, who is pretty famous.

Peter, who needed Andrew to introduce him to Jesus.

The passage doesn’t tell us why this little detail about Andrew telling Peter was included, but I can’t help but wonder if God knew there would be so many of us whose names would be forgotten but who would have a bit part in the story of someone else who would make God’s name famous. God didn’t need Andrew to introduce Peter to Jesus. He could have orchestrated that to happen in endless ways, but He chose to let Andrew play that huge, ginormous, significant, life-changing bit part in the story.

It would be easy to say that Andrew didn’t do much. He just introduced two people or only made the connection. But that “just” and “only” thing was a critical turning point in Peter’s story. He went from not knowing Jesus to knowing Jesus. It was the moment that shifted his life to eventually be a follower of and leader for Jesus. It was an important part of the story.

Foster care ministry needs families who choose to foster and those foster families need children to get rides to appointments, babysitters to care for little ones so the foster parents can go on a date, respite homes where their children are safe for the weekend and meals delivered during all the busyness. There is no “just a meal” or “only a ride” in the Community of Care (CoC) ministry model at FaithBridge.

If you have an interest or curiosity in foster care ministry but are unsure about actually fostering, perhaps God is calling you to step into a different role in someone else’s CoC? We invite you to prayerfully consider participating in Encounter, our introduction program. You never know how God will use you to be an Andrew in the life a Peter. After all, you probably wouldn’t be where you are today if it weren’t for all the Andrews in your life.