Monday, May 08, 2006

The Mark of Bonds

Yesterday, Barry Bonds hit homerun number 713. That puts him one behind "the Babe" for 2nd place in career dingers -- behind Henry Aaron, who has 755.

I have never cared for Barry. This has led to some real tension in our family, since for a long time my oldest son, Josh, adored him (actually, the tension was more of the father-son teasing variety). I would admit that Barry would have gone down in history as one of the greatest combination offensive / defensive players of all time. He had a great eye for the ball, often swaying umpires to call a ball if he laid off a pitch simply because they knew how good his eye was.

Sadly, his decision to use steroids will forever taint his record. His legitimate greatness will be forever tarnished. Without ever using steroids, he would have been mentioned in the same breath as his godfather Willie Mays and other great ballplayers. But now, he will always carry a stigma -- much like the mark God put on Cain.

Wow! How blessed are we that, with God, we carry no marks from our past! Every one of us deserves to be marked. Adulterer. Gossip. Murderer (hater). Bigot. Glutton. Liar. But washed in the blood of Jesus, the only mark we carry is "Child." Praise God for His incredible mercy and love!

2 comments:

Liz Moore said...

I am so thankful for a God who does not treat us as we deserve. But who covers us with His grace and who loves us unconditionally even through all of our ungodliness.

Romans 5:1-5 ~ 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

jenny biz said...

Josh - Down boy, down boy:):)