“I know he’s a grown man, but a little courtesy never hurt anyone.”  I was a little put out, Esther had prepared dinner for all of us and Andrew hadn’t shown up.
“Simon, don’t worry about it, you ate his share, so it’s fine, really.”  
Esther and her mother were puttering around in the kitchen while I was getting things ready for work and I wasn’t a happy camper.  Andrew had better pull his weight or Esther’s kid brother, Eli would get a lot more work from me.
Andrew was officially my partner, Dad had left the boat to both of us, but lately, he was taking more and more time chasing after “Messiahs” and less and less time fishing.  And it wasn’t horrible, Eli was more than happy to fill in for Andrew and being single and living with us Andrew didn’t need the money, but still, I thought we were partners.
I was still debating if I needed to send Esther to get her brother when Andrew burst through the door.
“Simon, I found the Messiah, and he wants to meet you.”
“Andrew, just stop it, we have work to do and you introduced me to the Messiah last week, remember?”
“No, last week I introduced you to John, but you were right, he’s not the Messiah.  But he told me who was.
We were listening to John teach today and watching him baptize people.  According to John, It’s all about repentance, we all have stuff we need to stop doing.
Afterwards, Philip and I went to talk to John and while we were talking, he just stopped.  It was the weirdest thing, it was like he had seen a ghost behind us, and then he said ‘Behold the lamb of God.’
And then he starts on about how now it all made sense, but he had never connected the dots before.  Never once had he ever suspected that his cousin might be the one who was coming, but the Spirit had just spoken and there was no doubt about what He was saying.  Jesus was the one we needed to follow.
Well, we turned around and there was a guy about our age, just standing there smiling.  And he looked at John and said ‘Yeah, who would have thought?  I’ve always known John, but I needed for you to know.  I need you to let people know that the time is now.’  
And then he turns and walked away.
And as we watched him go, John broke the silence, ‘That’s him, he’s the one, you need to follow him not me’. There was an urgency in John’s voice that had never been there before.  He had always sounded angry before, but now he seemed — excited.  Like something he had been waiting for had finally happened.  ‘Go, talk to him, find out what’s next.’ So, we did.
Simon, he’s nothing like I expected, he’s from Nazareth and he’s just a carpenter, but when he speaks It’s like he knows everything there is to know about your life.  And he told me to come and get you.    He looked at me and said ‘Andrew, your brother needs to hear this, go get him.’  How did he know I had a brother?  I didn’t tell him.”
I had had enough, “If he didn’t know that we were brothers he is the only one in town that doesn’t know.  Someone probably told him about us, maybe John.  
Come on Andrew, you haven’t been to bed yet and we were up all last night fishing, you’re not thinking straight.  This guy is just one more on your ‘He is the messiah’ list, and that list just keeps getting longer and longer. And seriously, a Nazarene Carpenter?”
“Just come and meet him, Simon, what do you have to lose?”
“Nothing, other than an hour of my life I’ll never get back.  Fine, I will come and meet your carpenter Messiah, but Andrew this is it.  No more messiahs after tonight.  If I can’t count on you to be ready to fish in the evenings, I will have to bring Eli on full time.”
He just grinned, he had heard it all before, but the boat was half his and we both knew it.
“I’ll just let Esther know where I’m going, and I’ll be right out.”
When I went back to the house Esther and her mother were sitting at the kitchen table deep in conversation, but the words stopped when they realized I was there.  Weird, normally they kept right on talking when I showed up. Sometimes about the most awkward things, things I didn’t want to know about.
“Hey, babe I’m heading out now, Andrew wants me to meet his latest messiah and then we’re  heading out on the lake, I’ll see you in the morning.”
She came over and wrapped her arms around me, “Take care of yourself sailor, don’t take any chances on the boat, and cut your brother a little slack.  Okay?”  And then she kissed me and whispered: “Mom’s hasn’t been feeling good, but she doesn’t want anyone to know.”  
“Okay, take care of her, and I hope you sleep well tonight.”
I grabbed my cloak and headed out to where Andrew was still waiting.  “Come on little brother, lets’ get this over with so we can get to work.  By the way, does your carpenter have a name?”
Andrew laughed, “Everybody has a name, his is Jesus”

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