God At The Ballpark

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 ballpark is not exactly the place where you would expect to learn a good Sunday school lesson.  Amid all the noise, the chaos, the flashing lights, and the booming announcements, finding a moment for solitude and reflection simply isn’t in the cards.  Yet, one Saturday evening, during all of this raucous confusion, I saw one of the best examples of a biblical principal played out by a young father and his 5-year-old son.

We were sitting in the nose-bleed sections, almost high enough to touch the undersides of the airplanes as they prepared for landing at the airport. The view was great, the breeze was even better, and the fact that we didn’t’ have to climb over a bunch of folks to get to our seats indicated this would be a most promising evening.  The fact that we won the game 10 to 1 was also another check in the plus column.

Not long after my friend and I settled in, we were joined by a young father and his small son.  The father had a playbook with him and proceeded to make all the necessary entries as the names of the players were called.  Now playbooks are beyond my comprehension, but I am always fascinated by the acute care avid fans take in recording every minute detail of the game.

As the game progressed, the father explained everything to his son.  The little boy was full of questions, as the father of any 5 year-old will tell you, and the young man patiently and carefully answered them all.  He told his son about hits, runs, errors, strikeouts, bunts, double plays, etc.  He made sure his son saw him mark everything in the playbook and explained to him why each mark was important.

As I sat there watching the game but listening to this father, the words from Deuteronomy 6:4-7 came to mind, “4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

These words from the Lord are an admonition and a command to the Children of Israel to spend time instructing their children in the ways of the Lord.  Our first teachers are our parents.  From them we learn all the important lessons of life, all the things necessary to grow and become responsible adults.  But God’s words go beyond that.  We are to teach our children about God and we are to do that all the time.  Notice that this is to be done when we are sitting, walking, lying down, and getting up.  In other words we are to do this 24/7.

That Saturday evening at the ballpark, that little boy learned a far greater lesson than completing a playbook. He learned the importance of his father’s presence.  He learned the importance of spending “alone time” with dad.  And he learned that during those precious moments he was the most important thing to his father.

Isn’t it interesting that these are the very lessons God wants us to learn about Him.  Are we learning them?  Are we spending alone time with Him, drinking in everything He teaches us?  If not, how can we expect to teach these things to others?  We can only teach what we know.  How much do you know about God today?  What lesson are you teaching today?