Baseball, as I've mentioned before, has always been a part of my life. If I wasn't watching it on t.v., rooting on the Kansas City Royals as a kid in Missouri, various minor league teams in Illinois, or eventually re-finding my love of the New York Yankees, I was at the ball park all summer watching my dad, my siblings and eventually my nephews. I love this game.
And without the ball, the game would be nothing. It would be worthless. Everything revolves around it.
A baseball measures between 9 and 9 1/4 inches in circumference and weighs between 5 and 5 1/4 ounces. Not much to it, really. But HOW it's made is a big deal! Take a look:
How a Baseball is Made
Wow. The precision that goes into the process amazes me. The fact that so many different materials wrap around the "pill" or the core of the baseball to pull it all together. Then, to see the people that were hand-stitching the balls at the end really was something see!
This summer has been a rough one for me. In many ways I've felt like I was coming apart at the seams. It's been a roller coaster of emotions and some days I have just struggled to breathe. It hasn't just been one event, though I believe it began around the time Grandpa Bill passed away. And from that moment, I found it harder to navigate through even common things. It culminated a few weeks ago with me ending up in the doctor's office and for the first time in my life being put on some prescription meds.
Please, don't feel like I need sympathy or need a long vacation. :) I'm good. I'm just not above running headlong into life and feeling a bit like one of these baseballs getting knocked out of the park or ending up dirty and beat up in a pile of practice balls. But, unlike the baseballs who, in the major leagues, only live to see about 7 pitches, I'm not used up after 7 knocks of life's bat, I'll last longer than 7 tosses from the pitcher to the catcher.
Why? Because like a baseball, I've been made by the greatest Designer.
At my core, the Lord "set eternity in my heart" (Ecclesiates 3:11). Then He wound layers and layers of love around my core. "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14). God also has been so delicate and purposeful in "stitching" me together. Each part of me, each part of my personality, each emotion, each laugh I make, each tear I cry, He sees and cares about and even created.
And I love that even when life is knocking me around the ballpark and I can't seem to catch a break, instead like the fate of the baseball, my Maker gently pulls me back to Himself and stitches up my seams. Sometimes he sends a sweet friend with flowers. Sometimes a friend sends up prayers on my behalf. And sometimes He just gently whispers to me through my tears that He loves me.
Hold on, friends. He loves us so much. He has such purpose and love for us. And He has taken great care to stitch us together into such love that we never need to worry about our worth. He literally put His blood, sweat and tears into creating this life for us. He's got us.
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