Reflections on Baseball and the Way we Share the Score

We came home last evening after spending four days with our three grandsons (ages 9, 7 & 5), while our son, Peter, and his wife attended a conference in Florida.  The boys are in the middle of little league season and they pretty much live baseball.  In the between games and practices, they play baseball in the backyard on a diamond they have set up.  They also follow their favorite teams, and players.  They have MLB-TV so they can pretty much watch any game.  They also each have at least one fantasy team that they manage.  The first one up each morning turns on the TV to the MLB Network to get the recap from the previous evening so they can update their brothers when they wake up.  They take great pride in having the information first.

I couldn't help but think of how different it is to my childhood experience.  Few games were on TV and we had to rely on the morning paper to update us on the scores from around the league.  Late at night during the summer I would lie in bed and listen to the late games on the radio.  My dad had rigged up an antenna on a pole outside that allowed me to pick-up stations from around the Midwest.  I could listen to the Reds, Pirates, Cardinals,  Cubs and White Sox.  There were no west coast teams in those days, so everything pretty much was done by 11:00 PM. 

I still am in awe when it comes to the way we get our information today.  By the time I open the paper in the morning the scores from the previous evening are old news.  On any particular evening I have a choice of multiple games to watch.  It's not uncommon to be following my favorite team, The Detroit Tigers, on my i-phone, while watching the Texas Rangers on TV. 

Many of the same things apply when it comes to how we access God's word.  I still prefer my leather-bound Thompson's Chain Reference NIV Bible when it comes to devotions and Bible study, but I also have an app on my i-phone that allows me to read any chapter in the Bible from multiple translations and paraphrases.  The same app has commentaries and a Bible dictionary.  Amazing technology!

With all these changes, one thing remains constant.  God's story remains the same and there is never a doubt when it comes to what the final outcome of the contest is going to be.  The way God's story is told through our lives changes constantly though.   When it comes to sharing that story with others,  it is still best conveyed in a one-on-one personal way.  Verbal communication is still the best way to pass the torch.