I think we have all experienced instances of “wrong place at the wrong time” as well as “right place at the right time”. Sometimes, when you stop and think about the odds of being in the wrong/right place, it can be kind of shocking.
Recently, my husband was on a Marian pilgrimage. I stayed home with our three children, but since I’m no superhero, my parents came to help me out. One day, we went to a Pittsburgh Pirates game. I was pretty nervous leading up to the game simply because in the 11 years I’ve lived in Pittsburgh, I had successfully avoided driving through the Fort Pitt tunnel. If you know, you know. But, I had to get us to the game, so into the tunnel I went (and even found parking). We had purposefully chosen tickets under an overhang as we were attending an afternoon game and didn’t want to sit in the sun all game. We were in the last row of our section in prime time foul ball land.
I should also mention that Paul Skenes was pitching that day. And if you know anything about baseball, you know that the pitcher isn’t typically announced until a few days before. When I saw that Paul Skenes would be pitching, I couldn’t wait to tell my son – a big baseball fan and being from Pittsburgh, a big Paul Skenes fan, of course. So the fact that the game we decided to go to a month and a half beforehand ended up being a Skenes game, it already kind of felt like “right place at the right time”.
In the second inning, after our hot dogs and chicken strips had been consumed and our Pirates goodies purchased, we were settled in to watch the game. I jokingly told my son he better put on his baseball glove. So, he did. As Paul Skenes pitched, we watched him continually strike Diamondbacks players out. Then, one of the Arizona players hit a foul ball. You know those moments that feel like they are happening in slow motion? This was one of them. We watched the ball come towards our section. The ball hit the overhang above us, bounced down about 7-10 rows in front of us, and (what felt like very slowly) bounced through many people’s hands and landed in my son’s glove in his lap.
You think you know what you’ll do as a mother when a ball is ricocheting through the stands. You think you’d stick out your hands to protect your child. But, I definitely didn’t. I didn’t even protect myself. It happened so fast – and in slow motion all at once. My thoughts were “Oh no, I’m going to have to fend off other people to get this ball wherever it ends up”. Whenever I realized it literally landed in my son’s glove, I started laughing. Everyone around us was cheering and so happy for my son. People were high fiving him and congratulating him. And we all just sat there laughing and in pure shock.
I immediately sent my husband a picture, and he was so excited. In the pure shock of it all, we had not even put two and two together that Paul Skenes had pitched that ball. My husband was the one to point it out a continent away.
As the game progressed (and as my son didn’t let go of the ball), I kept thinking about the odds of it all. First of all, we chose that game. Second, we chose that section. Third, my son sat in that seat – not me, either one of my parents, or my daughters. Fourth, that we had just finished eating and my son had just put his glove on. Fifth, that it landed perfectly in his glove and none of us had moved a muscle.
While tucking my son in that night, he said it was the best day ever. I told him how many people never catch, and will never catch, a foul ball at an MLB game. That it was meant to be that he got that ball.
This is all a silly way of bringing about a very simple point (and maybe stretching slightly to get there). Be where you’re supposed to be. Allow yourself to be where God has placed you. Sometimes it’s just choosing to attend a game even if you’re scared of a tunnel. Sometimes it’s a much bigger place or time in your life. But be present and let yourself be there. Because more often than not, there will be people (or a crowd) cheering you on – ready to high five you and congratulate you when you’ve made it. Even when you’re not in a crowd of people, and you’re just allowing yourself and your heart to be moved or changed – God is always there, cheering you on.
