by Rick Furmanek
If you’re involved in travel team baseball there’s a good chance that you’ll be on the giving or receiving end of a new bat or glove this Christmas season. That’s great. Every kid loves to get something special under the tree and as a parent you’re privileged to experience the joy of seeing your child’s eyes light up as he unwraps your carefully selected gift you purchased with just him in mind. No doubt you had a lot of models to choose from, didn’t you? It seems that equipment manufacturers offer a new bat and/or glove technology every year, whether it be new metal, harder wood or professional grade leather, there seems to be no end to the choices.
I have a question to ask you . . . why do we buy our sons new bats and gloves? It’s a rather obvious answer, isn’t it? Actually, the answer is twofold . . . but we often don’t give it a second thought. For one, we as parents love to give special gifts to our kids. The second part?. . . Simply put, bats and gloves wear out. Aluminum dents, leather cracks and wood splinters. If you’ve been around baseball for any length of time you know that baseball equipment has a limited life span. If your son plays beyond the spring season, you know all too well that this stuff wears out a lot more quickly than you prefer . . . but . . . because of our innate desire to show our son he is special in our eyes, that he occupies our thoughts, and because he needs it, we find ourselves back in the sporting goods store, perhaps several times a year, picking up a replacement. It’s a fact that baseball parents have come to accept as a normal part of life in sports.
Concerning gift giving and gift receiving, there’s yet another observation we could benefit from . . .
During this special season, there are two very important characteristics about God we shouldn’t forget . . . First, God, our Heavenly Father, loves to give his children gifts. The book of James says, “Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” God wants you to know this season that you’re highly valued, you occupy his thoughts, and he will continue to look for ways to give you good and right gifts. Second, the greatest gift has already been given. That gift was his own son, Jesus Christ. The wonderful aspect of this special gift is that it doesn’t wear out, will never need a replacement and will have no need to be upgraded with a newer model. Yes, Christ came into this world as a lowly child in a manger and but let’s not forget that he left this world as the Resurrected Savior with a mission; to complete the way for us to become God’s beloved sons and daughters. May we remember this season that this gift of eternal life with God is just that, a gift. We don’t earn it, we don’t work for it, we merely reach out and receive it. The gift of eternal life only comes by way of receiving the gift of his Son into our hearts. In its truest sense, this is really the only gift backed by a 100% unconditional lifetime warranty . . . guaranteed.
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