Baseball: Nutshelled Utopia

I’m a kid again. It’s baseball season, Boston beat the Yankees tonight, and all is right with the baseball world. Okay, my Braves lost, but what is sweet without the bitter to make it even more sweet?
Major League Baseball is once again commemorating Jackie Robinson on April 15, the anniversary of his major league debut.
Talk about bitter with the sweet. Baseball and America were much more racist in 1947 than we are now.
Think about that-it’s societal progress and Baseball mirrors what is happening in the rest of the world.

Baseball is truly colorblind now. Ability is the standard: if you can play, if you can win; it doesn’t matter what color you are. There are no positions on the field exclusive to any race-pitchers, catchers, infield, outfield…all races are well represented at every position, or will be in the next few years.
In America, we are also becoming colorblind: ability is the fair standard by which we should all be judged.
Admittedly, we have a share in a racist past, just as Baseball does. But the guilt of earlier generations doesn’t stain us today.
Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream is alive and well in 2008, and if he were alive today, I believe he would be proud of how much progress we have made towards a colorblind world. I can imagine him and Jackie Robinson cheering us on.

The Boston Red Sox were the last Major League team to integrate, in 1959. The BoSox of 2008 cover the color spectrum nearly to ultraviolet, but not because of race-every player is there because of his ability.
They can play. They Win; that is the bottom line which obliterates any color barrier.

God is colorblind. Our Creator didn’t designate a color-caste system for us-not only are all men created equal, but all of us are created in the image of God. Christianity is neither race exclusive nor race inclusive. It isn’t dependent on being Jewish or Greek or African or Asian or whatever else. Jesus said, 28“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
All means all. Heaven won’t be segregated, and, if we continue to make progress in this world, neither will we.