On September
30, 2009, columnist Mitch Albom sat on stage at the Fox Theater in Detroit,
Michigan, to interview Ernie Harwell, one of the most beloved men in American
sports. Harwell spent more than 50 years as a radio play-by-play announcer, mostly
for the Detroit Tigers baseball team. His kindness, humility, and warmth as a
broadcaster left an indelible impression on all who met him.
When Albom
interviewed him, Ernie was 91 years old and had just announced that he had
incurable cancer. But as Ernie talked, he wasn’t about to let people feel sorry
for him. Instead, he wanted to talk about the night in 1961 when he trusted
Jesus Christ as Savior. And, during one of the final times this Hall of Fame
announcer would be able to speak publicly, he concluded, “I don’t know how many
days I’ve got left . . . [but] I can really know . . . whose arms I’m going to
end up in, and what a great, great thing heaven is going to be.”
Ernie was
anticipating something special! He knew that God had a glorious eternal home
prepared for him (John 14:2-3;Phil. 1:21-23), so he could look death in the
face and praise God. Is that your confidence? Do you know that His arms are
waiting to welcome you home? At the end, that’s really all that matters.
For the Christian, death means heaven, happiness, and God.(RBC)
