Having a Ball

Christian's soccer team played their first game of the season this afternoon.  He has been looking forward to this day for weeks, excited to get back on the field with his friends, and try to score a goal!  They played a great game, even though the other team won the game.  They did a better job of spreading out this time around, and hopefully as they play a couple of more games they will get better at keeping the ball and taking it down the field to score.  Don't hear me wrong-I don't think it's all about scoring.  But they looked pretty bummed that they were not able to get a goal this game.  I think they have it in them, though. 

Here is a slideshow of the pictures from the game; Christian did a great job and got in some really impressive kicks.  It's hard to get a photo of that, really (at least for me at this point as far as my photography skills go...I was holding Eliana, too, and unfortunately when Mike came and she wanted to go to him, my battery died!), but I tried to get him in action.  Several times, from the other team's end of the field, he kicked the ball hard, with the inside of his foot, and it went flying back down the field (the right direction!) in a pretty straight line.  It was fun to see him doing so well, and enjoying himself too. 

After the game, we were headed to the car when Mike reminded me that the soccer balls were still on the field somewhere (each of them brought a ball to the game).  So we turned around and headed back to find them.  They were missing!  We circled the two playing fields, looked around the playground, checked around the entire park, but discovered no balls.  As we were about to get back in the car, Mike noticed one ball sitting by a goal, so Michaela ran over to see if it was ours; it was.  It was the one she brought.  So, Christian's ball was still missing; he was upset by this, and didn't want to leave without his ball.  We finally convinced him to get in the car, with the hope that someone from the team picked it up, thinking we were gone, and would bring it to practice.

Mike stayed an extra few minutes and gave one last perusal. 

I got the kids home and in the bath and was about to start dinner when I heard the doorbell.  I was puzzled; I went to the door (no one comes to visit us, so this was pretty unusual, especially at dinnertime) wondering who in the world it could be.  One of Christian's teammates was at the door with his mom.  She said,"(Teammate-I'm refraining from naming because of privacy) has something for Christian."  I smiled and said,"Did you find his ball?"  Teammate stepped forward with a soccer ball, but not Christian's soccer ball.  He said he heard that Christian had lost his ball, and was sad about that, and so Teammate wanted to give Christian his own ball. 

It was all I could do not to cry.  This is a six-year-old boy, sacrificing something that you know is special, for a friend. 

He really wanted to come in and give the ball to Christian; unfortunately my son was on the potty waiting for his turn to get in the tub (sans clothes-not so dignified for receiving guests bearing gifts).  I wish that he could have come out to get the ball from Teammate himself, but it didn't work out that way.  I thanked them again, and said how special it was.  Mike walked up to the front door just as they were walking down the front steps, and said,"What's going on?"  So, Teammate's mom told the story, and Mike of course said how great that was, and gave him a "five".  They said good night, and Mike came in.

He went to talk to Christian.  His hands were behind his back.  He told Christian that Teammate had just come by, and Christian immediately said,"Did he bring my ball?!"  Mike tilted his head to the side and explained that he had run into the mom at the park, looking for the ball, and told her the story.  She must have relayed it to her son, who then decided that he wanted Christian to have his ball.  So, Mike pulled Teammate's ball around from behind his back, and told Christian that Teammate had brought him this ball to have.  I wish I had had a camera for the expression on Christian's face...at first he was like,"No....," as though there had been a mistake.  Then he smiled so big, and we all said again how very kind and thoughtful that was for him to give up his ball.

This is the kind of thing that lays a foundation for a life of service and sacrifice.  Little man saw a friend who lost something, and he wanted to help out his bud.  This is a profound thing for a six-year-old to do.  It points to a greater sacrifice, one that involved an innocent man who saw that there was a world full of people who were lost, and knew the only thing that could help them and rescue them was to sacrifice his life.  His life for their life. 

I pray that Christian will remember this act of kindness forever.  I hope that he will recognize the significance of a seemingly small act, and that it will move him to act likewise in the future.  I long for him to know the One whose ultimate sacrifice was even greater, whose love is great, and whose strength is great.

I would love to see the boys score goals this season, but the goal I will pray for is that they would know their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Phillipians 3:7-14

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ— the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

Comments

[Jen]

DuDE! They're already in soccer season down there?! Our season doesn't start until mid-April. (It's still wayyyy too cold up here...I'm totally envious of your mild weather right now...but I'll be just fine when, in the middle of summer, you are talking about how it's 100+ degrees and we're sitting comfortably at 80 degrees. hee hee ;o)