The 18-inning game between the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros last postseason reminded me of the present age in human history.  

It seemed to keep going and going. 

I watched a lot of the 6-hour and 22-minute game and kept thinking someone had to score. But it was 0-0 for over six hours. 

That game made me think about what would happen if Jesus never came back, but humanity kept going, until we were a defunct species and Earth was a cosmic boneyard hurtling through space.

If that happened, all our spurts of hope would’ve been irrational waves in the face of domineering futility. Everything we accomplished will have come to nothing. Our species’ brief time in the vast cosmos would’ve been defined by pain, injustice, natural disasters, violence, tyrants, division and death. 

Though we’ve made some social, scientific, technological and economic advances, our demise would’ve shown that optimism was delusional. 

The notion that the human project could produce unlimited human improvement and bring peace, immortality, justice, and prosperity was a myth based on the false premise that we could rise above attrition. 

That’s bleak. But that’s how the game felt, like it might go on a very long time, then come to nothing. 

Thankfully, there was a turn of events in the 18th inning when Jeremy Pena of the Astros hit a home run. 

Our hope is in a turn of events too. 

While we are still waiting for God’s full-scale renewal, we can look at the turn of events already brought forth in the coming of the Messiah, His victory over death, and the arrival of the Holy Spirit. 

Those things mean God’s grand plan is underway. 

God has already begun to do what humans, in their hokey optimism, think they can do by themselves, but can’t. 

God is already ushering an era of peace, immortality, justice, and prosperity. God has already advanced humanity to new levels. 

We are already agents of the massive redemption — the resurrection of the dead and the new heavens and new earth — that will one day come in full force.

It’s a long game. But the players are in motion and the home run in the 18th inning is coming.