Eric knew there was a God in heaven, but he didn’t know anything about His Son Jesus Christ. One day when he was in desperate need of food for his starving family, he prayed to God for help. God heard his desperate prayer and sent a large, edible bird to feed his family.
Later, a missionary Eric met gave him some medicine when he was very sick, and the pills cured his illness. The gospel tracts he received from the missionary at that time told the good news that God loved him and sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die and bear the punishment for his sins, if he would believe and accept Christ as his Lord and Saviour. He also learned that this salvation was available to everyone who would believe, that they might be ready to meet God. Eric soon became a believer and began sharing this wonderful news with his fishermen friends and neighbors.
Some time passed, and herring were needed as bait for the fishermen’s nets to catch fish. Eric was away when a fishing trawler brought a load of herring for bait to the village.
One of the fishermen suggested a cruel plan: “What do you say, men? Let’s leave Eric out of this haul and see what the God he talks so much about can do for him.”
When Eric returned, none of the fishermen would share the herring bait with him. Having nothing else to use, Eric decided to cast out his net anyway without the needed bait the others had.
The villagers were keenly watching Eric as he made his way to check his net. This was going to be a great joke, and they followed him so they could laugh at his foolishness of casting out his net with no bait in it.
Other nets had been placed where they could catch the most fish. However, when they hauled them in, they were all empty. Finally, they came to haul in Eric’s net. At first it seemed to be caught. . . . What could be holding it back? Using all their strength, the men pulled again, and at last the net came up - full of fish!
The men stood by speechless while Eric thanked and praised the Lord. Then Eric, with beaming face, invited others to share in the fish from his net. He joyfully gave fish to all the fishermen and his neighbors, enough to feed their families. “As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:3131And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. (Luke 6:31)).
As the news spread, this generous act of returning good for evil opened the doors and hearts of people everywhere in that village. When the full story was written up in the village newspaper of Hofsos, Iceland, it also reported that when a missionary came to that area, the largest building in Hofsos could not hold the crowds of people who came to hear the message that so changed the life of Eric the fisherman for Christ.
ML-11/14/2004