A few years ago, a video showing a woman stealing a baseball from a young girl went viral.
It seems a small thing, given all the horror of the world today. Except that this child indelibly learned how selfish people can be. One act paints two souls, the one who acted and the one acted upon. A blot on two hearts.
That is no small thing.
But sometimes people step up. Even when they don’t have to. Even when no camera, no one else, is looking.
Our family–my brother and I, our spouses, most of our kids, all of our grandkids–attended a minor league baseball game this summer. We had a block of seats along the third base line–prime territory to catch a foul ball. But that works best if you pay attention.
And for one play, we weren’t paying attention.
I looked up in time to see the ball coming. My thirteen-year-old grandson was sitting in the ball’s path. He took the shot right in the belly. Family members and stadium crew got busy making sure he was okay. We hadn’t bothered to see where the ball went.
But a few minutes later, a boy quietly appeared, handed my grandson the ball, and left. If he had kept it, we might not have even thought about it.
So my grandson got a ball that day. Getting a baseball is always a memory. But his memory is more than catching a foul ball. It’s a memory of human character at its best.
One act showed the paint of a soul. And painted our hearts too.
And that is no small thing.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
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