Keith Hernandez is one of the best baseball players in history. He is a lifetime .300 hitter who has won numerous Golden Glove awards for excellence in fielding. He's won a batting championship for having the highest average, the Most Valuable Player award in his league, and even the World Series. Yet with all his accomplishments, he has missed out on something crucially important to him -- his father's acceptance and recognition that what he has accomplished is valuable. In an interview he was asked about the tension between he and his dad. Hernandez said that his conversations go a lot like this: "Dad, I have a lifetime 300 batting average. What more do you want?" His father responds, 'Keith, someday you're going to look back and say, 'I could have done more.'"

Imagine the hurt and anger that must build up. The bitterness and loneliness. Not in Keith but in his dad. That's what you learn as you grow older, at least you hope that children, as they grow, can learn that. That this kind of broken love is not personal, though it feels that way for much of our young life, but it's not. We know it's not. As we get older, we see the damage that exists in the lives of the people we love. And that's where Christ comes in, repairing the past, healing hard hearts, and giving strength to reach beyond the pain, to the person who perhaps needs more love than we do. Sometimes that might even be, our very own fathers.