Follow That Boat!

Luke 9: 10–17

Key to actions
😲 Everyone gasps
🥱 Everyone yawns
👋 Everyone waves side to side
🔭 Everyone peers into distance
⛵️ Everyone cries, “Follow that boat!”
🥵 Everyone runs on the spot
🤤 Everyone tummy rumbles
😋 Everyone says, “Yum, yum, yum”

Once upon a New Testament time, Jesus ate a picnic with his disciples and… 5,000 people 😲!

One day, Jesus needed some peace be quiet. He needed a rest 🥱 and he said to his friends, “Let’s hop into the boat and sail across the waves 👋 to somewhere we can be on our own.” So that’s exactly what they did.

But… on the shore, some beady-eyed people spotted 🔭 Jesus and his friends getting into the boat, and they said to each other, “Oooh, that’s Jesus. I would love to hear Jesus speaking and see him healing and watch him doing miracles. Come on everyone, let’s follow that boat ⛵️!”

So as Jesus and his friends set sail, all along the shore people started walking and running 🥵 and skipping and tumbling so they could follow that boat ⛵️! First there were a few, then there were a few more, then there were a lot, then there were a lot more, and pretty soon there were thousands of people, even as many as 5,000 people 😲, all running 🥵 to follow that boat ⛵️!

When Jesus, who needed a rest 🥱, and his friends had sailed across the waves 👋 and reached the far shore in the quiet place, it was so noisy! It was so busy! It was chock full of more than 5,000 people 😲! And Jesus, who needed a rest 🥱, looked at all the people, more than 5,000 people 😲, and he felt compassion for them and loved them, so he got out of the boat, smiled a big smile and gave them all some cheery waves 👋 before starting to speak.

But it had taken a while for the boat to sail across the waves 👋 and for the 5,000 people 😲 to run to the not-so-quiet place, and it was starting to get late. Jesus’ disciples looked around at the 5,000 people 😲 and thought they looked tired, like they needed a rest 🥱, and looked hungry 🤤, like they needed some food 😋. And they asked Jesus what he was going to do. But Jesus said to his disciples, “You find some food 😋 for these 5,000 people 😲.” And he sent them off to search for food 😋.

Well, they started running 🥵 around the crowd, and looked and looked and looked, and finally one of the disciples spotted 🔭 some food 😋! He took a little boy to Jesus saying, “Look what I’ve spotted 🔭! This little boy has some food 😋 and wants to share it. But it’s only five loaves and two little fish, and that wouldn’t feed a hungry 🤤 fisherman let alone 5,000 people 😲!” But Jesus took the food 😋, he thanked God for it, and began to break it into pieces and give it to his friends to pass around the crowd. He broke more and more and more and more until every single one of the 5,000 people 😲 had eaten enough food and didn’t feel a bit hungry 🤤 anymore.

The 5,000 people 😲 were full of food 😋 and full of amazement that Jesus had performed such an amazing food 😋 miracle! Jesus, who wanted peace and needed a rest 🥱, had shown them how much he loved them, he was their shepherd and they were his well-fed sheep. And as they thought about Jesus’ words and miracles and deep, deep love for them, every last one of the 5,000 people 😲 felt so glad they’d decided to follow that boat ⛵️!