Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
August 28, 2010
There was a strangely ethereal movie produced back in the year 1989. It was called The Field of Dreams, in which Kevin Costner played a dreamer called Ray Kinsella who heard The Voice. He never explicitly tells the audience where The Voice comes from, but the message Ray received was loud and clear to his ears – “If you build it, he will come.”
It is the story of a man with a wife and child, who bought a farm with which he acquired a large crop of corn. He heard a voice that gave him a repetitive message; he was told to plough under some of the corn crop to build a baseball diamond (the game of America’s first love).
He was not quite sure what it was all about or who would come, but he put an abiding faith in The Voice, and proceeded to do exactly what he was told in obedience to it. He had never done anything like this before – so very out of character for him. But he knew he had to go ahead with the plan, being driven from within himself to follow the instructions.
Opposition to him and his plan arose immediately, coming from his own brother-in-law, Mark, who claimed Ray neither liked nor knew anything about farming. To the contrary, Ray insisted that he knew more than Mark thought. So, Mark asked him how he then could plough under his major crop and livelihood for a pipe-dream and a voice from somewhere, which really didn’t exist. Ray merely responded by asking, “What is a crop?”
It had become more important to him than anything in his life, even more important than money, to build a place to which the American people could get into their cars and drive. It would become a place where they could participate in their first love, the love of the game of baseball. It would become a place where lost opportunities could be replayed, having a different outcome. This is the story of a young farmer in Iowa in the heart of the Mid-west.
He received some very telling advice from a man called Terence Mann: “People will come, Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. ‘Of course, we won’t mind if you look around,’ you’ll say. ‘It’s only $20.00 per person.’ They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack.
And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces.
People will come, Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that which once was good and it could be good again. Oh…. People will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.”
Ray also searched out a man called Dr. Archibald Graham who reminisced about the past to him – about missed opportunities for which his choices in life were responsible. “Well, you know, I … I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn’t.
That’s what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases – stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That’s my wish, Ray Kinsella, that’s my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?”
Ray looked at his wife playing with their daughter, contented and peaceful on the porch. To his amazement his father, John Kinsella, suddenly is revealed to him on base as a young man. John asks the question, “Is this heaven?” Ray replies, “It’s Iowa.” John exclaims as he begins to walk away, “Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven.” Questioning deeply, Ray asks his father, “Is there a heaven?” to which his father replies, “Oh yeah. It’s the place where dreams come true.” Ray can only conclude, “Maybe this is heaven.”
And so the field was built and the scene followed where the players came out of the corn field to play like ghosts from the past, with cars seen snaking down the road to share in the moments replayed from the past, where situations could be changed. Ray got the opportunity to capture the moment he never had in his youth of playing catch with his father, and a moment for his long dead father to connect with his supportive wife and child.
Today, the cars are still coming by the thousands so people can have the opportunity of playing on the field of dreams, the privilege for which they have paid a sum of money. But sadly to say, it has been put up for sale, in the same way as America has been put up for sale with the dream fading for the yet unborn who will never have the opportunity to play out the American dream. They have missed their chance to hit that curve ball, which the politicians threw at the opposing team of the public, and knock the politicians’ pitch right out of the park for a home run, bringing others into home plate to score with them.
Field of Dreams is a story all about those who have heard the Voice of God. The Voice prods them and drives them to become His voice to prod others on to victory. They will most definitely be seen as being a bit crazy to give up their wealth in this world in order to become builders of heaven on earth for the benefit of others. The deceived public yearns to be able to rediscover lost dreams, but simply has not known how to go about it, when their churches have never taught them to listen for the Voice of God, who they did not know could speak to them.
Wake up, America, to the sound of The Voice. God is calling us all to turn back to better times in Him, so that our sins can be erased as we repent and seek the life once intended for this nation. It was a time when the bribery and lies of liberalism had not overtaken the public square, yet, with its evil. There is no magic in the moonlight, only the reflected light from the sun, like that of the Son of Man. Those wonderful days were wonderful because they were spent in the light of Jesus, the nation’s first love.
As Dr. Archibald “Moonlight” Graham said: “This is my most special place in all the world, Ray. Once a place touches you like this, the wind never blows so cold again. You feel for it like it was your child.”
How many Americans love their nation with a love like this today, with an indescribable love for country? Are the illegal immigrants who cannot accept God’s reign over America, not trying to vandalize and ravage her? They want to use her harlotry, justified within rights laws, to buy her rights out and set up their own laws of religious controls in this nation to become the pimps for the harlot.
As Terence Mann said, while watching the game of baseball with Ray, “It’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters.” And so it will be, but there will be no magic in the waters to which he alludes, for they are the pure living waters of God. Jesus declared of Himself that He was the living water for which man thirsts – the very reason men come to the field of dreams, searching for the Lord in spirit, perhaps, without even knowing it.
And the manna (Jesus, the bread that came down from heaven) ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year (KJV Joshua 5:12).
And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter (KJV Ruth 2:2).
“‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel (Exodus 19:5-6).”
Did Ray Kinsella hear the Voice of God? Was he calling America back to her past, which had been lost because of the sins of her people? Was he not confident that if we listen to the Word of God and obey Him then we can retrace our steps and get it right when given a second opportunity? Did Ray Kinsella dare to drop the world to build for the Kingdom, knowing many would call him crazy for thinking God had spoken to him and called him?
Do we really want to see the Field of Dreams sold to the World Order of developers who will transform the dream of the West back into the religion of the East, whence Americans departed to become settlers in a new land under God’s truth? What does it speak to us about the future, when we allow the Field of Dreams to be turned over to the heartless one who seeks only to conquer and destroy?
Terence Mann’s concluding words to Ray were these; “This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh…people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.”
Wake up, America, before this land of dreams is lost to become merely a passing fantasy. Revive us, Lord, so that we may once again experience the peace and joy, which accompany that wonderful place in our hearts called the Field of Dreams, where we can indulge ourselves in our first love as we play out the restored American dream.
“If you build it, He will come.” Ray obeyed the Voice and gave to us the Architect’s design, for he had received it directly by instruction from heaven.