When Hope Limps to the Plate

October 15, 1988. Game 1 of the World Series. The Los Angeles Dodgers faced the Oakland Athletics — one of baseball's most dominant teams, led by fearsome closer Dennis Eckersley. Kirk Gibson, the Dodgers' best hitter, sat in the trainer's room with torn ligaments in his left knee and a strained right hamstring. He could barely walk, let alone swing a bat.

The Dodgers were down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth, two outs. Nobody expected Gibson to appear. Then, almost impossibly, he limped out of the dugout.

What followed became one of baseball's most iconic moments. Gibson fouled off pitch after pitch, working the count full. On a 3-2 backdoor slider from Eckersley — the best closer in the game — he swung. The ball sailed over the right field fence. He hobbled around the bases, pumping his fist, barely able to run. Broadcaster Vin Scully said simply, "In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened."

The Almighty specializes in exactly those moments. When our strength is gone, when we can barely stand, when formidable forces seem arrayed against us — that is precisely when God steps into the story. Hope in Scripture is never wishful thinking. It is confident expectation rooted in a God who does what cannot be done.