God has the long view of reality.

Cubs and Indians do not. On Tuesday, October 25, 2016, the Cleveland Indians shut out the Chicago Cubs 6-0, in the first game of the 2016 World Series. Indians’ manager Terry “Tito” Francona, now into his third World Series, recorded his ninth win in nine games at the championship level, where the contest is a best-of-seven series.

“Wow!” breathed the thousands of Francona fans. “Wow!” Or “Awesome!” maybe. Or, more likely, “Incredible!” (everything has recently become incredible). Uninitiated visitors to America hear the report and react very differently: “Oh!” Or, perhaps, “Oh?” Or maybe, “So?”

Sadly, these newbies know nothing of popcorn and wieners, joining the wave, and singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” with Harry Caray at the friendly confines, nothing of nights and days and decades of sleeping and weeping in the Wrigley Field stands. To them, this game, or series of games, between two American teams, is something incidental to their learning to understand America.

While the Cubbies sigh and cry and the Indians dance and sing, the newbies fall asleep; they see no impact on history in flinging, catching, dropping, or hitting a ball nine and a quarter inches in circumference.

In the end I am tempted to forgive the sleepers, pity the Indians, and gawk at the celebrating Cubbies. For in the end the sleepers’ “So?” has been summarily vindicated: the winners of game 1 went home crying after game 7. The Cubbies’ long fears and the Indians’ short gloating have both evaporated. Those who share the newbies’ third perspective may have been the most enlightened. If nothing else, they do not live or die by the outcome of one game or World Series, or even a century of them. They share a larger view of things.

God, who has the long view on reality, has dared to share it with us. We know how the series will end. We do not sorrow as do others after loss. We have hope. It burns within our hearts. We have hope. It anchors our souls. We are Adventists.

This magazine we have been reading for more than 167 years is a magazine of hope. Learn its name again: Adventist Review. Its credibility is its perspective, one that our Lord Jesus Christ has shared with us so that we may share it with disappointed Indians, elated Cubs, and with the world. You, dear reader, have the best reasons for doing what you are doing right now: reading your Adventist Review, feeding your hope in the God who never fails, who guarantees your victory in the end.

Celebrate that, celebrate Him, every day: He has the long view of reality.

Lael Caesar is an associate editor of Adventist Review.