Forget Olive Garden and Target. What Greenwood really needs is a curling rink and a cricket field. Not a hair salon or field of chirping bugs, but places where folks like me can expand our athletic horizons and have a go at the sports of curling and cricket.
I’m not serious … well, mostly not … but I’ve kind of gotten into curling, which is a bit like shuffleboard on ice, since the 2014 Winter Olympics. I felt compelled to find out why the curlers were sweeping like they were possessed by a cleaning demon ahead of a stone as it slid down the ice.
At first, curling seemed like a weird sport to include in the Olympics. I mean, how hard could it be? Well, pretty hard, apparently. I watched a TV commentator try it and she looked like a newborn giraffe taking its first steps—legs sprawling all over the place.
I was a faithful curling fan during this year’s Olympics and was thrilled when the U.S. men’s team won gold. Forget the glitzy figure skaters and the uber-cool snowboard dudes and dudettes—these curling guys, with their Minn-eh-SO-tuh and Wiss-KAWN-sun accents, were my Olympic heroes.
Cricket is another sport I’m curious about. I’ve been reading books by P.G. Wodehouse and I keep bumping into unfamiliar terms related to cricket. He weaves the sport into his stories so often one gets the feeling it must be the British equivalent of college football in the South. Besides, cricket was included in some episodes of “Downton Abbey,” the best show EVER, and that’s good enough for me.
I’ve always loved sports, so how it is that I’ve lived so long and learned practically nothing in my life about curling and cricket? It just reminds me how shallow my pool of knowledge really is. In fact, there’s so much I don’t know, I don’t even know how much I don’t know. Not just about sports, but about everything.
And if I’m overwhelmed by my lack of knowledge about things of this world, how much more is there to learn about eternal things? Just the iceberg tip I’ve discovered about God makes me shout with the Apostle Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways (Romans 11:33a)!”
One of the characteristics of those headed for hell seems to be that they don’t have a “love of the truth so as to be saved (2 Thessalonians 2:10).” Curiosity about temporal things in this world can be bad, good or neutral, but sincere curiosity about God, fueled by a love of truth, is essential for us to get on the good path that leads to Him and the salvation He offers.
One of my dearest friends, Edith, passed away in her late 80s. During my last visit with her, she leaned forward and with a characteristic twinkle in her eye, she asked me to tell her what I’d been learning about Jesus. She was curious to the end about the God she loved. Now Edith is with that God, probably giggling with delight as she enjoys His riches and finally “fathoms” His ways.
My personal, unprovable theory about what heaven may be like includes activities that are perfected versions of our earthly interests, maybe even sports. So, who knows? Maybe curling and cricket will be in my future after all. I hope so.
But whether they are or not, I know Jesus will be there and I can’t wait to see and know Him with clearer eyes, an unclouded mind, a pure heart, and a perfect body ready and able to enjoy every pursuit heaven offers. Maybe even curling and cricket.