November 11 – “Four in a row …”

Finished up the study on angels in church yesterday.  Always hard to tell how a series, albeit a brief one, has been received.  Hopefully it answered some questions for everybody.  Now I guess it’s back to 1 Peter …

After church we rushed home to change clothes and head out again.  Cailyn had two softball games in Santa Fe, and it looked like we would be able to see one of them if the timing was just right.  As it turned out, we arrived before the end of the first game, so we had a little unexpected bonus viewing time right off the bat.  Cailyn’s team won that game quite handily.  Her next game was scheduled after one other game in between.  But one of the teams set to play needed a few girls to fill in for them to make enough to play the game.  Cailyn and another girl from her team were asked to stick around and play again.  She jumped at the chance.  So two games in a row. 

Then her team returned for the third game in a row.  They won again against a little bit better pitcher than before.  That’s one thing about this league they are in.  If a pitcher walks three batters in a row, then the last girl to walk doesn’t get to walk.  She then has to try to hit a pitch thrown by her own coach.  If she had two strikes on her when the walk occurred, she only has one pitch to hit against the coach.  If she had one strike, then she had two pitches, and so on.  Very strange rule.  I mention it only because it came up so often in these three games. 

After this third game we found out that Cailyn had already been asked to join in with yet another game.  This one was a step up in play.  She has been in a 10 and under league.  This game, though, was against girls 12 and under.  So, better competition.  And they used a bigger softball.  And they played with regular rules, as far as I could tell.  It was so much more exciting to watch this one.  Cailyn was thrust into the fray of things, being put at third base.  She handled the position admirably.  She fielded cleanly the only ball hit to her.  And she beat out an infield hit on a slow dribbler near the plate.  Even knocked in a run on that one.  Sounds like she will be moving up to this team in the Spring.  I think she can handle it.

So, four games in a row.  I remember doing that sort of thing as a kid with baseball.  I even threw in a few fast pitch softball games back then as well.  And I was also thrust into the third base position.  It’s kind of scary, but I loved playing anywhere.  That’s my prayer for all our kiddos – that they play sports or do karate or twirl in a dance studio - because they really love it.

Zechariah 14:9 says, “The Lord will be king over the whole earth.  On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.”

Father, thank you for chances the kids have to learn and play and just have fun.  Amen.