It's been interesting the way there's a seesaw rhythm sometimes.

Jessica was born, and Sam was killed. "Chunk" passed away, and Cristal Esmeralda was born. Brian and Katherine Hamrick welcomed Nathan James into their lives, and Rick & Carey Poe's baby's heart stopped beating the day before she was due for no immediately discernible reason.

I'm wrestling with Sunday's sermon ... The unexpected kingdom ... Jesus' parables describe it elliptically, he didn't come out and describe it in toto.

It's easy to call up images of the Kingdom with a couple who have a new baby in their lives, but where is the Kingdom to a couple who has just lost their long-expected baby? What can I say to them? it's true that, among other things, the kingdom can be characterized by the absence of tears and heartache ... but is that something that needs to be said to a couple traumatized right here and right now?

Last night at the game, we got whupped. however you look at it, by the 5th inning, we were just playing to be out on the field, it stopped being about trying to beat the other team. there was some grumbling and gloomy faces, but then something really cool happened.

Farnham (the other team) started to relax, laugh and smile, and so did we. The grandson of one of the players, who was decked out in his uniform, came out to swing his bat ... RJ, our pitcher, came up to within a few feet of home plate, and gently tossed the ball to the little boy. He was a little overwhelmed by the attention, and would have rather buried his face in his pappy's leg than swing again, but he did give it a try. With his grandfather's help, he did swing about 3 or 4 times. Then an older boy, probably 9 or 10, came up to bat. He got a base hit.

When it was our turn to come up to bat again, Leslie, who'd been cheering the team on, got a chance to bat and ALSO made a base hit. It turned into a relaxing evening. There were still some bruises and pulled muscles, and even, I’m afraid, one broken thumb. (Sorry Jay!)

The cool thing was this --

EVERYONE WAS CHEERING.

It wasn't about us and them anymore.

You could probably make a plausible argument for the fact that it stopped being about us and them when them's were the ones who had too many points for us to catch up, but looking at it another way, we could have stopped the game once we'd reached the point of no return - and emptied the field, made room for the other teams, and gone about our business. But somewhere around the 5th inning it started being about just being together and having fun. The night was cool, the sky was clear, and the sun had gone down.

Thanks be to God