The greatest sport ever invented is well under way now. There is no game like baseball. It requires athletic skill and equal parts of mental ability. It is a thinking person’s game. The pitcher’s best pitch is an inside fastball while the batter’s favorite pitch to hit is a fastball inside. So, do you throw that fastball or do you throw a curve ball? Decisions like that fill the game.

It was 1954, I attended my first baseball game in Wrigley Field. Cub right fielder Hank Sauer, hit a home run and I was hooked. Since then every time the ivy blooms, I have hope. Hope that this year the Cubs will have a winning record. Hope that this year the Cubs will make the play-offs. Hope that the Cubs will win the pennant. Hope that the Cubs will win the World Series.

In Romans 8: 24 “For in this hope we are saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees.”

We use the word hope interchangeably with wish and dream. Wishes and dreams have no basis for belief. I wish I would win the lottery. I dream of driving a Mercedes. But my wishes and dreams are based on nothing. There is no basis for my wishes or dreams to come true, especially since I don’t play the lottery. My hope for the Cubs is really nothing more than a wish or a dream.

Real “HOPE” on the other hand is a belief that has foundation. Hope is built on certainty. Hope means to look backward and forward at the same time. I look back and hear God’s Word, “I have heard their suffering and I will come to save them.” And He did. I look back at Jesus words, “I Am the Resurrection and the Life.” And He is. I look back to Christ on the cross and his prayer for me, “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” I look back on that Sunday when the angels said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here!” Those are the words that give us HOPE.

A homerun, gives me a dream. The ivy blooming suggests that my wish may come true. But my HOPE is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Where does your HOPE lie? Put your faith in Christ for He is our only HOPE.                       Veritas - Curt