story people

last night molly and i were having a conversation about jesus and if he were physically here today.
what would his profession be?
would he stick with carpentry?
who would he hang out with?
what kind of clothes would he wear?
would he watch movies?

although i only have speculations for most of these hypothetical situations, i would like to argue that i think he would watch movies. maybe not all movies, but i do think he would watch movies.
i think he created us with a nature that needs stories.
we want the best story for ourselves as is possible.
when something comes along that tells a better story, we change our course.
when we truly believe the jesus story, we change our story to become jesus people.
all that to say, i think movies are one way we tell stories during these modern times, so i think jesus would watch them.
anyway, i recently saw sandlot for the first time (which i confess i thought was a beach movie, but soon learned was about baseball.) but i was impressed by alot of the jesus themes in it. one of my favorite parts is when benny invites smalls to play baseball with the gang, knowing full well that he is awful. smalls even knows he's terrible at the game, and offers to leave after missing a play. but benny encourages him. he makes him feel wanted. and he's good enough at baseball that he doesn't just include him, but he helps him learn the game.
maybe a little cheesy, but i really resonated with this acceptance. jesus does this in so many ways for us. we're terrible. he knows we're terrible and we know we're terrible. but he picks us anyway. he encourages us. he wants us for his gang. and he's good enough at life (because he's God) that he doesn't just include us, he helps us, stands by us as we figure stuff out.

"how do i catch it?"

"just stand out there and stick your glove out in the air.
i'll take care of it."