May 31, 2026: Shia Plays Baseball
Shia plays baseball
The trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A way to think of the Trinity is Father (God before us), Son/Jesus (God beside us), and Holy Spirit (God within us). Here’s a story to help illustrate that.
In the middle of summer, a father was walking with his special needs son, Shia, to a park and there was a baseball game going on. It was a game with boys about the same age as Shia. Shia asked his father if he could play with them. The father doubted it but went to ask one of the boys standing there. The kid said, “Ah, no. We’re a team and we been playing together all summer.” “OK” so Shia and his father just stood and watched.
But Shia was really getting into it. As he watched, he’d imitate the boys swinging a bat or throwing a ball. This was noticed by many of the players and even the coaches. Well the game wasn’t going so well for the home team. They were behind by 6 runs. Well during the 7th inning one of the players from the home team informed the coach that he needed to leave. The coach looks over to Shia, called the boys together for a huddle, then goes to Shia and asks if he liked to join them. “Yes” was the response. So they did some shuffling of positions and put Shia out in right field. They needed to keep yelling out to him, “Shia stand up, don’t sit down.”
Well, amazingly the home team scored a couple of runs in the bottom of the 8th. So they were only behind by 3 runs. Then at the bottom of the 9th inning, the bases somehow got loaded and there’s two outs and it was Shia turn to bat. All the boys look at Shia and then at the coach and he just nods.
Now Shia has never held a bat before. So one of the players stands behind Shia with his arms around him to help him hold the bat. Then the pitcher steps up and few feet and softly tossed the ball to Shia. And with the help of that other player, he hits a ground ball toward the pitcher and his teammates yell, “Run Shia.” Then the pitcher intentionally throws the ball way over the first baseman’s head.
The first baseman scrambles after the ball then intentionally throws it way over the third baseman’s head. And Shia runs to second base and stops. But the shortstop runs over to him and points to third base and tells him to run over there. He does and stops. Then both teams are yelling “Run to home Shia!” He does. He just scored a grand slam and players from both teams come over to congratulate him.
Trinity is God’s presence with us. God before us, may you follow God’s lead this week to do the noble thing like the coach and take a risk and invite someone in. God beside us, may you reach out to help someone with a new task like the teammate did with Shai hitting a ball. God within us. May you trust the God within you and not keep score and yell “Run to home, Shia.”
