Playing baseball growing up, one of my favorite movies was Field of Dreams and a quote by the elderly doctor Archibald “Moonlight” Graham has always stuck with me. He said, “Well, you know I… I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big-league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn’t. That’s what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases — stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That’s my wish, Ray Kinsella. That’s my wish.”
In real life, Archibald Graham played 7 seasons in the minor leagues. On June 29, 1905 he was called up to the New York Giants and in the 9th inning, he went into the game. No balls were hit his way and during their turn at bat, the game ended with him up next. It was his one and only major league appearance and he was soon sent back down to the minors to a team with a local connection: the Scranton Miners.
After 3 more seasons playing minor league baseball, Graham hung up his cleats. True to the movie, he began to practice medicine in the small town of Chisholm, Minnesota. For the next 50 years, he lovingly cared for his patients. Every Saturday, he would have used eyeglasses donated and the local children come for free eye exams and to be fitted for glasses if needed.
In Field of Dreams, the main character Ray said to Graham, “Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within… y-you came this close. It would kill some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they’d consider it a tragedy.”
Graham responded, “Son, if I’d only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes… now that would have been a tragedy.”
I love the story of Archibald “Moonlight” Graham because it resonates with our own lives so well. We all have dreams and aspirations that have never been realized. Some have remained far off all of our lives and some we have come painstakingly close to. Sometimes, in the quiet of a summer day or winter snow, we pause and reflect on what could have been. We wonder what different turns in the road may have led to and if our dreams passed us by because of our choices.
Graham has it right though. The missed chance at his dream paved the way for a lifetime of serving and taking care of others. The impact on the lives he touched extended much further than his baseball career would have ever allowed.
God works in our lives in mysterious ways. He is shaping us, molding us, and positioning us for what He is calling us to do. Look beyond the dreams that were once dreamt to the blessed present that God has given you. Cherish it and understand that God is working through you in the context He has placed you in. To go through life missing out on how you can serve God, make disciples, and help others, now that would be a tragedy!
