When hope took the field

It was the top of the sixth inning, my grandson Conway and his Little League team had not fared well during the season. This game looked no different. Down 7–0, they came to bat with little reason to believe anything would change. You could see it on their faces and in the slow walk toward the dugout – not only the loss of a game, but the loss of believing in themselves.
Then it happened. A hit. Then another. The bases were loaded. A runner crossed home plate. Then another. Suddenly, what had been quiet and defeated began to stir with life. Hope started growing in the dugout. Parents and grandparents, finding their voices, began cheering for the team, and moms reached for their cell phones to record through the fencing what was unfolding. The young boys straightened their shoulders and lifted their heads like the champions they were. Energy returned, and belief settled in their hearts. What had seemed out of reach no longer felt impossible.
Through the cheers and stolen bases, the top of the sixth ended with a fly ball to center field and the game suddenly within reach. But the score was not the only change. The slow walk to the dugout became quick and steady as they took the field with newfound determination. They had tasted hope and no longer carried the weight of defeat. They became a team that believed victory belonged to them.
Three batters. Strikeout. Strikeout. A ground ball to second base – cleanly fielded and thrown to first. Out! Game over! And the team, nearly out of hope before the final inning, walked away victorious. I wonder how often life turns when we think the story is over. Sometimes the last inning holds more blessings than we imagined.
Again and again, what seemed like the final inning has become an opportunity to turn toward His blessings. Scripture is filled with such moments. As Israel stood at the Red Sea with the enemy behind them and no path ahead, the Lord made a way where there was none (Exodus 14). The Samaritan woman came to the well weary of life, yet she left changed by meeting Jesus (John 4).
But one of the most caring and often overlooked stories is found at the city gate of Nain, where Jesus met a widow following the body of her only son. If ever life looked like the final inning, surely it was then. The tender moment comes when Jesus speaks to her tears: “Do not cry.” Before He ever spoke to the death of her son, He first spoke to the grief of the mother. He stepped into her sorrow and met her in her heartbreak – where grief seemed to have the final word, Jesus revealed that sorrow is never unseen in the presence of God (Luke 7:11–17).
Honestly, we’ve all stood in what felt like the last inning, when doorways and avenues seemed blocked. We have come to dry wells, longing for a fresh drink.
And Jesus has met us, speaking to our fear and meeting us in our tears.
So if you find yourself standing at a gate of sorrow, beside a dry well, or before an obstacle you cannot move, remain in hope. What feels like the final inning may yet become the place of His greatest blessing. His greatest work may still be yet to come.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland (Isaiah 43:19).

Cheryl Mixon-Cruce is Pastor of Ochlockonee Bay United Methodist Church and Sopchoppy United Methodist Church.