Daily Word of Grace # 42 (May 13, 2020)
In the spring of 1989 some college friends and I went to see the classic baseball movie Field of Dreams. It stars Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella, an Iowan farmer who in response to a voice that tells him, “If you build it, he will come” builds a beautiful baseball field in the middle of his cornfield. Over the course of the film you learn that Ray’s relationship with his father was always strained—they just never seemed to connect, and John had intentionally done and said things to spite him. Ray’s father is dead and he is overcome with regret and wishes he could apologize to and reconnect with his father. Near the end of the film many members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox team, players dead for decades, magically walk out of the cornfield and onto the field John had built, and play a baseball game. And at the end of the film the identity of the “he” of “If you build it, he will come” is revealed—it is none other than Ray Kinsella’s father, John, the young man playing catcher. Ray introduces his father to his wife and daughter, and later asks him a question all of us ask at one time or another, “Is there a heaven?” His father responds, “Oh yeah, it’s the place dreams come true.” A few moments later Ray is playing catch with his father, their relationship finally healed. Scripture assures us not only of the reality of heaven itself (John 14:1-3; Revelation 4:1ff) but the reality that it will surpass all our dreams: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). And because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in heaven the broken relationships in your life, like that between Ray and John, will also finally be healed (Colossians 1:19-20).
Love and Prayers,
Dave