Graduation

 For the first time in three years family and friends can once again pack stadiums,  arenas and auditoriums to celebrate high school and college graduations.  Masks are off and the smiles are back, youthful faces grinning at each other, searching for family and friends in the crowd. Mothers and fathers anxiously searching for sons and daughters.

 Every graduate represents a unique story.  Most are young. Some represent the first graduates in their family. Some are focused, with jobs lined up and a clear career path before them. Some are still finding their way, not quite sure what they are going to do with the degree they earned. All, in one way or another, have managed to complete their degree during the difficult days of Covid.

 A few are like our son.  In 1992 he entered college as a freshman.  But, like many others, either he wasn’t ready for college or college wasn’t ready for him.  He lasted a few semesters, bouncing around to different universities before joining the Marine Corps.  Over the years, besides serving our nation as a US Marine, he developed a successful career in Information Technology.  He married and raised our three older grandchildren in a Christian home. He proved to be a wonderful husband and father and a Christian example in his community.  Today, he is 48 and this weekend, May 14 he will walk across the stage to receive his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wyoming where his daughter is a senior and his youngest is a freshman. He says he crammed his college degree into 30 years!  All our family will be there to watch him “walk” and to celebrate,  including his sister from Colorado and his brother from Minnesota.

Graduations inspire us because they not only celebrate a significant achievement, they celebrate new beginnings, new possibilities and opportunities.  Education offers to the young the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills that equip them for the future.  For those who are older, it offers the opportunity to re-tool, to start over, to pursue new dreams.

 God loves to lead us into new dreams and new discoveries.  In Isaiah He says, “From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you,” (Isaiah 48:6).   Nothing is as important for a new start on life as a spiritual transformation that connects us with God and places in our hearts the values that make life meaningful.  Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Proverbs 1:7).  In Ezekiel God said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26).

 God is always about new beginnings.  He offers to the young the opportunity to launch their lives on the path that leads to life and, to those who are older, the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start anew. Whether or not you hold a formal degree from an institution, whether you are nineteen or ninety, you can make a new start on life by trusting His Son, Jesus.