The Ring Steve Bartman Never Expected

On October 14, 2003, Steve Bartman became the most hated man in Chicago. In Game 6 of the NLCS, with the Cubs five outs from the World Series, Bartman reached for a foul ball that left fielder Moises Alou had a chance to catch. The Cubs collapsed, losing the pennant. Bartman was escorted from Wrigley Field under police protection. Death threats followed. He disappeared from public life entirely.

Then in 2016, the Cubs finally broke their 108-year championship drought. And something remarkable happened. Instead of leaving Bartman in exile — which would have been easy, even satisfying — the organization chose a different path. In 2017, Cubs President Theo Epstein quietly presented Steve Bartman with a World Series championship ring, saying the Cubs wanted to convey that he is "a Cub."

Bartman didn't earn that ring. He contributed nothing to the 2016 championship. But that was precisely the point. The ring wasn't a reward — it was a restoration. It said: you belong here, despite what happened between us.

That is the shape of divine forgiveness. We did not earn our place at God's table. We interfered, we fell short, we sometimes caused the whole thing to collapse. Yet the Father reaches across the distance we created and offers something we cannot merit — not a reward for good performance, but a ring that says: you belong to Me.

Forgiveness is not God forgetting what happened. It is God choosing us anyway.