"PATRICK'S HERE!!!"

            Even before Patrick reached the front stairs to the Ward's house, he heard the shout and saw the door fling open.  Both Samuel and Joshua bounded down the stairs and greeted him in unison with “Good morning!”

            “You’re just in time for breakfast!”  Samuel announced and then grabbed Patrick’s arm.  "Come on!  Let's go inside and play hide-and-seek while we wait for Mom to finish cooking."

            "No," argued Joshua.  "It's too nice of a day to be inside.  Let's play outside while it’s still cool.  I heard it’s supposed to get pretty warm out today."

            "Sounds good to me!" Patrick agreed.  "I even brought my baseball.  Maybe we could play catch."

            "Okay," Samuel said a little hesitantly and then took off running.  "Race you to the backyard!"

            The other two boys followed closely behind as they sprinted off toward the backyard. 

            Stopping by the trampoline, Patrick fished his baseball out of his pants pocket and threw it underhanded to Joshua with a “Here, catch!”.  Joshua then threw it to Samuel and then back it went to Patrick.

            After playing a three-way game of catch for a few minutes, Samuel grew tired of it and headed for the garden to dig in the dirt.  He had been creating a wilderness for his plastic dinosaurs among his mom's tomato plants and thought of a new design to add to it.

            Meanwhile, as the other two boys continued throwing the baseball back and forth to each other, Joshua commented, "Hey, Patrick!  You've got a great pitch!  Have you guys been winning all of your baseball games?"

            Patrick, who was the pitcher for the Little League team, paused for a second and then lowered his head and answered, "No, and the coach blames me.  I'm afraid he's going to put me in as catcher instead."  He looked back up at Joshua and said, "I really want to pitch!  I feel it in my bones.  I know that I have the talent for it.  It's just that..." and then he lowered his head again.  "It's just that I get so nervous with all of those people looking at me, just waiting for me to mess up.  And, then, I usually do.  I just don't know what to do."

            Joshua walked over to Patrick and they both sat down on the cool grass, tossing the ball back and forth.

            Patrick continued, “We have a game coming up this Saturday.  The coach said that he would give me one more try.  If  I don’t do well, he’s going to switch me to catcher.”

            After Patrick caught the ball, he looked straight into Joshua’s eyes and announced, “We are playing the Dragons this Saturday!  They are the toughest team in our tournament!  There’s NO WAY that we can beat them, and… and I’ll get the blame for it!”  His gaze dropped down at the ball still lying in his hands and then he slowly stuffed the ball back into his pocket.  “I might as well give up and quit now.”  

            Joshua thought for a moment and then quietly asked, “Have you asked God to help you?  I mean, have you prayed about it?”

            “No, I haven’t,” Patrick answered.  “I never thought that baseball would be that important to God.  I’ve never seen it mentioned in the Bible,” he added with a smile.

            Joshua laughed and then said, “Not directly, you goof!  But, God has given you the talent of throwing a ball, so I guess He’d surely help you use it.  Have you ever heard of the verse that says something about Christ giving us strength to do all things?”

            Patrick’s face lit up and he answered, “Yes!  We just memorized that verse last week!  Let’s see if I can remember it.”  Shutting his eyes, he quoted, “‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’”  His eyes popped back open and he looked very pleased with himself.  “There!  I at least did one thing right!”

            “Good job!”  Joshua reassured him.  “But, now, as my dad always says, you need to apply it.  It’s good to memorize verses from the Bible, but they are there for us to use in our own lives.”

            “Hmmm… I never thought about that.”  Patrick was silent for a little while and then spoke, “So, do you suppose, like the verse says, that Jesus will give me strength to use my talents when I need to… and not be afraid?  Even when others don’t think that I can?”

            “I don’t see why not,” answered Joshua.

            Just then, a shout came from the garden.  “Hey, you guys!  Come on over here and look at this!”

            Both boys jumped up and ran over to where Samuel was playing.  Surprised, they found him in a deep hole, with only his head showing.  The recent rains had left the soil very soft and easy to dig.

            “Cool!”  Patrick exclaimed.  “Can I dig some?”

            “Yeah, sure… if I can get out,” Samuel laughed.  He dug the toes of his shoes into the sides of the hole as he pulled himself up, out of the dark pit.

            Patrick then jumped in and shouted, “Here, give me the shovel!”  After Samuel handed the dirt-encrusted tool down to him, Patrick began to dig.

            It wasn’t long before Patrick stopped and breathlessly exclaimed, “I think I hit something metal!”  He tapped the shovel all around his feet, trying to measure how far the metal extended.  All of a sudden, there was a loud cracking sound and Patrick disappeared out of the other two boys’ sight!

(to be continued...)