Below is a excerpt from an article that appeared in The New York Times following Anderson's death, which captures the coach's respect and appreciation for the athletic talent and skill of one of his Reds players, Johnny Bench:
During his news conference after the Series finale in 1976, Anderson was asked to compare Yankee catcher Thurman Munson, who was voted the American League’s most valuable player that season, with Bench, the Reds catcher and eventual Hall of Famer who had been the National League’s M.V.P. in 1970 and 1972. The question lighted the bonfire of Anderson’s loyalty to his players.
“Munson is an outstanding ballplayer and he would hit .300 in the National League,” he replied sharply, “but don’t ever compare nobody to Johnny Bench; don’t never embarrass nobody by comparing them to Johnny Bench.”
Standing nearby, Munson heard Anderson’s words, and when he followed Anderson to the microphone, he said he felt “belittled.” Three weeks later, Anderson wrote Munson a letter of apology, released by the Reds, that he had “no intention of trying to belittle you or any other catcher.”
Johnny Bench was an incredible baseball player, and I even did a project on him when I was in elementary school. Now I never saw him play, but he was one of my Dad's favorites so I looked up to him as well. One of the things I learned about Bench was that his hands were so big that he could hold 7 baseballs in one hand. Now take my word for it, that's freakishly impressive. If you have that many baseballs lying around at your house then try to see how many you can hold.
One of his fans even wrote Bench a letter asking him if this were true, that he could hold that many. Take a look at this picture of Bench holding the baseballs and the letter.
Wow...pretty amazing! But would you believe that in Scripture we get a description of something even more incredible that God can control or measure with His hands!
Proverbs 30:4 asks the question of "Who has gathered the wind in his fists?", with of course God being the implied and intended answer. Now passages like this can be confusing, so I don't want to appear misleading. For God is spirit, and doesn't have a physical body or hands like we humans have. Texts such as this one are then meant to demonstrate and show His supreme power and sovereignty. They are meant to humble us to the point of submission and authentic worship. We serve a God who is so holy and high above us, totally beyond our capacity to comprehend.
Among others, a few Scriptures in this same line include Job 38, 39, and 40, and Isaiah 40. Look below at part of Isaiah 40:
Isaiah 40:12-18
English Standard Version (ESV)
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has measured[a] the Spirit of the LORD,
or what man shows him his counsel?
14Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
15Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
16Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18 To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
In this we again see something else significantly greater than 7 baseballs related to God's mighty hand of power.
I taught part of this lesson to some of my HS students a few weeks back. But instead of using the 7 baseballs analogy, I presented them with a list compiled by ESPN on what numerous sports writers and fans consider to be the most unbreakable records in all of sports. Certain milestone achievements definitely set athletes in a distinct category above all other contemporaries. And yet after viewing some of God's accomplishments and milestone achievements, as highlighted in the above readings from Job and Isaiah, we all agreed that these sports feats truly paled in comparison.
As Isaiah 40:18 above states, To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
There's no comparison...literally! For even Thurmon Munson and Johnny Bench were literally and figuratively in the same ballpark so to speak. Not the case with us and God. Even more so, as 1 Corinthians 4:7 states "What do have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" We really don't have much room to brag whatsoever about anything we have or do.
But the best part of all of this is that God still loves us and desires a relationship with us! Isn't that crazy. While Isaiah 55:8-9 applies to God's thoughts and ways in relation to ours, Psalm 103:10-13 does in accordance with God's steadfast love toward those who fear him. Both passages claim that these traits of God are as high as the heavens are above the earth. Something great to lean on!
Like all Biblical truths, ones such as this should lead us to praise and worship. The following song captures all of the above sentiments in an amazing way, and it's lyrics allude to several of the passages mentioned (AND cool fact - this singer's brother attends Allen Bible and plays with me on the softball team, kinda neat).
No comments:
Post a Comment