Ahhhh... Opening Day

It's so great that Opening Day of the baseball season falls on my day off. I managed to watch most of the Indians/Sox game this afternoon with Grant and Preston. Preston seemed more interested than Grant. Grant doesn't like fireworks at ballgames so he wasn't too thrilled to hear that the White Sox invented fireworks at ballgames. I also got to watch portions of the Twins/Orioles and now the Rangers/Angels game. What a great day. I barely noticed it was nice outside.

Former Tigers announcer, Hall-of-famer, Ernie Harwell used to begin the first radio broadcast of the Tigers season with a famous reading for any baseball fan in Michigan.

For the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the song of the birds has come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

The quote is Song of Solomon 2:11-12 and was Ernie's way of expressing the movement of time and constancy of God's presence. Every year the winter passes and for us in the Midwest. The melting snow and the first 60 degree days remind us that life moves on and there is always hope as we look ahead. For Harwell, and for me, baseball is as much a reminder of that hope as the flowers, the birds, and that wonderful "voice of the turtle." Just look at today for example: There is hope for the Royals and Brewers who are now 1-0. There is hope for the Indians who blasted the Sox. There is even hope for the Cubs, after all they are only one game out of first.

There is hope! No matter where we have been there is hope. Family, friends, the coming of spring, and the clean slate of the baseball standings all remind us of that hope. It's fitting that baseball should begin as we prepare for the coming Easter feast.