Opening Day

Yesterday was opening day for Major League Baseball.  The start of the baseball season always brings a little longing in me for the long summer days of my childhood.  I used to fall asleep with my little AM radio under my pillow, listening to Skip Caray, Pete Van Wieren, and Ernie Johnson narrating the events of the night.  I can't tell you how many hours I spent as a child at baseball practice, baseball games, and pickup wiffle ball games when there was no baseball available.  The smell of the fresh cut grass in the outfield and the incredible oiled leather smell of my trusty glove are powerful, almost visceral, memories of years gone by.  Other memories flood back to me when baseball season returns: the crack of the bat, the dive for the ball and the throw to first; the blur of a fastball followed by the expectant swing of the bat; the dive into second when you know the ball might beat you there.

I played a number of other sports as I grew up and I have had a number of other things about which I was passionate, but very little evokes such a deep yearning in me.  I loved playing basketball more than baseball, and I miss it, but I don't have the same longing for it. I think this is one of the things that makes baseball the national pastime.  Baseball, as Kevin Costner would likely attest in any of his baseball movies, can be a spiritual experience for those who play, especially if you have played for any length of time.

To quote Shoeless Joe Jackson from "Field of Dreams":  Getting thrown out of baseball was like having part of me amputated. I've heard that old men wake up and scratch itchy legs that been dust for over fifty years. That was me. I'd wake up at night with the smell of the ball park in my nose, the cool of the grass on my feet... The thrill of the grass.

To further quote Shoeless Joe (from the movie):  Man, I did love this game. I'd have played for food money. It was the game... The sounds, the smells. Did you ever hold a ball or a glove to your face?

This longing for something perfect in the past is a whisper to us that life is not what it should be.  Something is missing.  There is something better out there which we have yet to fully take hold of and this yearning is a way of reminding us of this.

Romans 8:18-25 speaks of this yearning that is an inherent characteristic of this earth and of those of us who inhabit it:

18     For I consider that the sufferings of this present time ^aare not worthy to be compared with the ^bglory that is to be revealed to us.

     19     For the ^aanxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for ^bthe revealing of the ^csons of God.

     20     For the creation ^awas subjected to ^bfutility, not willingly, but ^cbecause of Him who subjected it, ¹in hope

     21     that ^athe creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

     22     For we know that the whole creation ^agroans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

     23     ^aAnd not only this, but also we ourselves, having ^bthe first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves ^cgroan within ourselves, ^dwaiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, ^ethe redemption of our body.

     24     For ^ain hope we have been saved, but ^bhope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?

     25     But ^aif we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995, S. Ro 8:18-25

May each baseball season remind us that we who are believers have something better ahead of us which we can eagerly await.