We have been discussing the movie The Natural for some time now, a baseball movie set in the 1930’s. What on the surface is a movie about baseball and the love between two people that goes all the way back to their childhood, is one of the most beautiful redemptive stories I have ever heard.

If you take some time and look more closely, it completely represents our story, yours and mine, and every person who has ever lived. Not necessarily the end, that will always be left for us to choose. But God wants all our stories to end beautifully, He is trying to wake us from our slumber, to woo us back to Him; and if we respond, He will embrace us with a love that will never fail.

If you haven’t read my piece on this movie, there is a link below to access it. It is a chapter from an unpublished manuscript that goes into great depth regarding the deeper symbolism in this movie. In this movie, very clearly, are all four chapters of God’s story – Creation, the Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.

Creation, or the Garden before the Fall, is represented by Roy and Iris’s childhoods, a calm and beautiful existence in the farmland of the Midwest, an innocent love, and a promise to marry.

The Fall is represented by Roy’s hard fall the moment he leaves “home” to go tryout with a professional baseball team. He falls for a seductress on the train (the lust of the flesh) and he is far too motivated to be the “best who has ever played this game” (the boastful pride of life). Roy completely forgets the love of his life and for sixteen long years, wanders, completely lost.

But God will never forget us, even when we forget Him. One day He will come looking for us and will do everything He can to remind us His love is pure and fulfilling, while the love of the things of this world, especially the praise of men, is only fleeting. One day God came to the ballgame and Roy remembered what true and perfect love is. The rest of this story, from this point on, represents our Redemption; our repentance and turning back to God.

But Roy was not completely free of everything which had enchanted him; just as none of us are free from all the sin that torments us just because we came to faith. For Roy, there would be an ultimate test. When it got down to it, what would Roy choose? Or who?

If you have seen the movie or read my piece, this will be more clear, but please read on. At the end of the movie, Roy finally realizes he has been a pawn in a much larger game. A businessman owns part of the team and wants to steal it away from the coach, who also has an ownership interest. Only if the team wins the pennant (wins their division and goes to the World Series), will the coach win the team outright.

The businessman has been bribing players to play poorly all season for his cause, and things only took a turn for the better when Roy came on as a player out of nowhere and just so happened to be an overnight star. As the season is coming to an end, the team has a chance to win the pennant.

The businessman decides to poison Roy and he has to be hospitalized and misses several games. Finally, with only one game left, it will be winner take all. Roy is very weak, but might try to play. And so, the businessman offers him a bribe, to show up and play, but purposely to throw the game. It seems Roy may have taken the bribe, but then, just before the game, he gives the money back and says he is going to hit away.

As alluring as the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride can be, sometimes God shows up in our life once again to remind us we were only created for one thing – to be in loving relationship with Him and others. As Roy steps up to the plate, for what will be the very last time, he finally realizes he has a chance to make a difference for others, not just for himself.

He is so weak, he needs the help of an almighty God to help him swing the bat, but his willingness and desire to do the right thing are all he needs. God will do the rest, just as He did with Israel in delivering them from Egypt, sustaining them in the wilderness, and dispossessing seven nations greater and stronger so they could enter the promised land. And just as He has done in many of our lives, He defeats the sin which has so often defeated us. All that is necessary is a willing heart.

If you have never watched this move, please do. It will be the treat of your week.

All we have ever needed is the perfect love of God. Will we only believe it? Will we only lean into it? Will we find the courage to forsake our other “lovers?”

God is waiting. What will you do?

Next time,
Sam