The Bungee Cord.  5-11-21

Hello,

 

I was watching a Pirates baseball game yesterday, when a player who was playing his first major league game got his first hit.  The Pirates retrieved the ball for him to put somewhere in his house as a lasting memory of that memorable moment in his life.

 

I have one such ball.  Displayed on one of my man cave walls in a plastic box is a ball given to me when I was 12 years old by my Little League Allstar team.  I pitched all 6 innings of the game.  Hit a home run off of the opposing pitcher, Ricky Bouchard.   Struck out my best friend with a curve ball, Mike Kripner.  And we won the game! (We had so many Little League teams that we had two leagues in my town.  National League if your address was an odd number.  American League if your address was an evening number.  705 was my house number, and so I was on the National League Allstar team, representing the Foster Toys Pirates.)

 

So, when the game was over, the coach handed me the ball and a blue ballpoint pen.  The ball was passed around the dugout, and every player signed it.   Kids that I used to kick around the infield dirt with.  Kids who I turned double plays with.  Kids who were cheered on by our coach who would yell onto the field, “Atta’ baby!  Atta’ boy!”   Now, 50+ years later, that ball hangs on my mancave wall next to pictures of me pitching in high school, various University of Illinois baseball hats (didn’t play baseball in college), some chalk drawings done by my oldest son, and a couple of pictures of my fraternity brothers when I went to Illinois.  Makes me smile when I see it.

 

I don’t know if God has a “Godcave”, but if God does, I imagine that on one of the walls God has all sorts of memorabilia…a piece of the hull of the ark, the pebble that David used to slay Goliath, a thorn from the crown that was placed on Jesus’ head, a chunk of the stone that God moved from the tomb of Jesus, and…a shelf holding a big book….the Book of Life (Rev. 3:5).  And like that baseball on my mancave wall, on the pages of that book are printed all the names of those who have a share in God’s victory of eternal life.  Scripted by Jesus’ hand, written in his blood, and smudged a bit by the Holy Spirit’s finger when God prays over all of our names.  And on page 6,783,201 is my name.  A name that bears the memory of my Baptism in October 1957.  A name that holds the words of God’s forgiveness of sins that God does not remember.  A name that has a room number next to it for the room in God’s heavenly mansion that God has prepared for me forever.

 

I don’t know how often God takes that book off the shelf and reads through all the names, but when God does, I bet a smile comes across God’s face, because each of those names is a name of a person that the devil did not get…the name of a person that the world did not conquer….the name of a person that not even death could claim.  Names of victory….God’s victory.  Your name.  My name.

 

Makes God smile when God sees it.

 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger