100% Bracket
Hey, everyone!
Can you believe it's here?!
The daffodils are blooming!
The sunshine warms the earth!
This can only mean one thing!
March Madness!
You know it! The NCAA basketball tourney when we go from the Four Firsts to the Sixty Four Best to the Sixteen Even Better Than That ("Sweet!"), to the Four Almost the Most Best ("Finally!"), to the Best of the Best!
You know how folks fill out the bracket (it's kind of a flow chart of the schedule of all the games) to predict, game by game, who will beat the other and move on to play other winners 'til we make it to the championship game?
Bet it was looking pretty good until yesterday afternoon!
(Where did McNeese come from?!)
I know we might feel confident that our guesses are pretty good but I read the other day that the chances of the average person getting a “perfect bracket”…
(when it's all said and done, you picked all the winners)…
are one in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808!)
And even for those who know something about the teams, making all the picks that wind up with a "perfect bracket" is one in 772 billion!
Statistically, your chances of a perfect bracket are about the same as the chances of an NBA player making 414 consecutive free throw in a row!
(The record is 97)…
Or the chances of a Major League baseball player hitting 17 homers in 17 consecutive “at bats”!
(That record is four!)
Or a PGA golfer sinking a “hole in one” on five consecutive holes!
Or the chances of me, back in my Triple C preaching days, preaching three consecutive sermons in 24 minutes or less! (That record is 0!)
If anyone thinks they could really come up with a perfect bracket with all the winners, that really is "March madness"!
One thing that I was wondering about…
Ever wondered why they rank the teams in "seeds"?
They don't place the teams in “groupings”, “ranks”, or “preliminary heats”, but in "seeds" The least awesome teams (a "16th seed” or a “14th seed") play the best teams first (a “number 1 seed" or a "number 3 seed").
Why do they call them "seeds"?
Sound like they're doing spring planting…
That's it! That's why they call it "seeding"!
Turns out the best teams play the worst teams in the different regions at the beginning so that the better teams…
who will most likely win the first round games…
will meet each other later!
If the teams were seeds planted in the bracket, it would hopefully bloom 'n blossom into more exciting games later in the month as the winners emerge!
Like seeds do!
Get it?
It made me think…
Lately, I've been reading the Letter to the Galatians and one thing Paul says about our Lord Jesus is that He is the "Seed of Abraham"…Check this…
"The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say 'and to seeds,' meaning many people, but 'and to your seed,' meaning one person, who is Christ…" (3:16)
Paul said God wasn’t telling Abraham about his many coming “seeds”
(ie., “descendants “), but about one seed…Jesus!
Jesus is original “Number 1 seed”!
Later he says, " …But at just the right time, God sent his Son, born of a woman…" (4:4)
Hmmmm…..
It's almost like Jesus was sent from Heaven to earth…
God becoming a human baby…
and growing and living…
dying and rising…
"planted" at just the perfect moment in history…
so that in the end, He wins the victory over all!
I remember hearing 'bout someone who was reading the Book of Revelation and a friend asked, "Wow! That's so complicated with all the visions and prophesies!!
Do you know what it all means?"
"Sure! Jesus wins!"
As Corrie Ten Boom always reminded us, "Jesus is Victor!"
I'm not sure how this tournament is going to come out, but no matter what you're facing today, if you puts His Name down as your choice in every space available…
in other words…
that you choose to trust Him, no matter what…
that you choose to follow Him, no matter what…
and that you choose to praise Him, no matter what…
then, no matter what…
no matter what you’re going thru…
your chances at a perfect bracket are…
100%