Manson's Memo - Opening Day

Opening Day. As I write this, I have a baseball game on the radio as the season gets underway. God is in heaven and all is right with the world.

As the new season starts, it is a time of new beginnings. Baseball looks like it was last year, but there are many changes. Some players have moved to new teams. Some young players are getting their first chance in The Show. Some players are coming back from injuries and surgeries hoping that they can regain their old form. Some fans are excited about their team’s prospects; others are disgusted over the moves their team made (or didn’t make) during the winter. Everything is made new each April when the umpire calls “Play ball� for the first time.

Baseball starts at the perfect time to reflect newness – just as spring is making itself known. In colder climates the crocuses are pushing up through the snow. My apricot tree has blossomed and has some tiny fruit starting to grow. Birds are nesting. All around us that newness is breaking out.

Baseball always manages to start within a couple weeks of Easter – sometimes Easter comes just before the season starts, sometimes a bit after the season starts. Easter is the ultimate symbol of new beginnings – the beginning of the world to come, the beginning of eternal life. Easter is a reminder that there is no situation to which God cannot bring a new beginning. As we go through the various changes and trials in life, we know that God gives life and newness even in the most difficult times.

As we continue to move through these last weeks of Lent, let us remember that Easter is its own Opening Day – the opening of life.

שלןמ
(shalom)