ACE #279: God and Football

Our nephew was injured in a football game last week.  My sister said that when he was carried off of the field and put into the ambulance, members of the crowd were either crying or praying or both.  He spent the night in the emergency room.  The diagnosis was a slight “stinger” injury.  No broken bones.  No dislocations. We were grateful to God because it could have been much worse.

The next day, my daughter and I stopped by the house.  My nephew answered the door. When I asked him what happened, he said that he went up in the air for a pass at the same time as one of the opponents and when he came down, he hit his head on the ground.  Then he explained that he got up too quickly and, “I saw black and then I saw the light. Then I passed out.” Yeah, I don’t know what "light" he saw, but moving on…

A few hours later, I went back over there.  When I walked in the door, I saw a bunch of high school boys laying around on the couches and the floor.  I left again to run a few errands.  When I came, there were more high school boys, a few parents, and some young ladies – the house was packed with teammates, classmates, and even some of the school staff had stopped by. 

This incident showed me that my nephew was very loved by his peers and their parents, but also that God manifests himself through the hearts and acts of his people.  The number of people that had offered prayers, flooded social media with well wishes, sent numerous texts, brought food items to the house, and visited was evidence that the love of God transcends race, gender, age, and everything else that separates us. 

Today, it is my prayer that we all look beyond the outward appearances of people, begin to look within the hearts of others, and to do good for people…just because.

Romans 8:31-39

More Than Conquerors

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.