Fish were very important in the Bible. Many people ate fish almost every day and there were a lot of fishermen to catch the fish. Some of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen.
One of the miracles Jesus performed in the Bible was feeding over 5,000 people with only five little loaves of bread and two fish. That’s a lot of people to feed with not much food. But Jesus could do miracles like that. When everyone was through eating, the disciples gathered up the leftovers and there were twelve baskets full! Where did all of that food come from? Jesus did another miracle! The people all had faith in Jesus that He would take care of them. And He did!
There is another story in the Bible about a great, big fish. It was probably a whale, like Shamu. Have any of you ever seen a whale? They are really big! One day God told Jonah to go to a city and preach to the people. He didn’t want to go. So, he got on a boat and started going the other direction. A big storm came and Jonah told the captain of the boat that God was punishing them because he wouldn’t go preach. So, they threw Jonah off of the boat and that great, big fish swallowed Jonah. Jonah was still alive and in the whale’s tummy. After a few days, the whale spit him out on the ground and Jonah finally went and preached like God told him to.
Many Christians a long time ago used a drawing of a fish to show others they had faith in Jesus. Today, some people have the symbol of a fish on their cars or in their houses to show that they have faith in Jesus. Anyone who sees that fish knows they are Christians and that they believe in Jesus.