Our Stories
Opening Day 2010
By Aaron Soderlund | posted 04/08/2010
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!" (1 Corinthians 5:17)
History 395: The History of Baseball. Now THAT was a fun class. It was an American history class that was based on the quote (by someone I can’t remember), "It is impossible to have a complete understanding of baseball without and understanding of America. And it is impossible to have a complete understanding of America without and understanding of baseball."
This past week, I have been out in the garage purging. Among the many things falling victim to my urge to purge were the notes from all my college classes. Don’t worry earth-friendly people, I recycled them. Well, all except my notes from History 395. Those were worth keeping.
On Opening Day that year, our instructions were to not come to class, go somewhere and watch baseball. Umm, if I must. But come to class the next day with a paper on "what opening day means to me."
For those of you that had your head in the sand, Sunday was Opening Day of the 2010 baseball season. Needless to say, it was an exciting day for me, as usual. We’ve had months of anticipation. The off season, a time of faith, hope and the belief in the possibility of change. Opening Day is the start of a new chapter. A time to start changing. The culmination of all we’ve talked about since the day the last season ended.
Opening Day is a reminder that the sun will rise every morning. It’s a reminder that God will always give us another chance. It’s a day of hope. A day of change as we see new faces represent our long-time team.
What does Opening Day mean to me? It means that God loves me and wants me to be happy. But it means that I will get another eight months of reminders of how God works in my life. The biggest significance of Opening Day is a reminder of Jesus.
Is it hard to understand why Easter and Opening Day were on the same day this year? Not to me. Just as we all share our hope for a new year of Mariner baseball, Jesus is our hope. Period. He is the culmination of everything. We will win because of Jesus. He is our faith. He is our hope. He gives us the belief of the possibility of change. He will change our lives. He will change the community we live in. He will change the world, through us. Jesus is our Opening Day.
Just to make it even more significant, four years ago Nathan was born on Opening Day. Two years ago, Josh was born on Easter. Is God telling me something? Usually.
So do you believe that God is a baseball fan yet?
Sidenote: Creekside has 42 tickets to the Mariner game on Saturday, June 5, at 1:10 PM. Let’s go and enjoy a fun time together as a community and maybe there will be a prize for someone that finds a way that God showed up to them by watching the game. But there are only 42 tickets, so you’d better get on it.
Aaron can be reached via email here.
