Blank faces

Tonight I found myself staring into the blank faces of the GR class of 2009. It wasn’t the “dear in the headlights” blankness. It wasn’t the “I don’t know what’s going on” blankness. It wasn’t even the “I wish this were over” blankness. (As a preacher that one is all too familiar!)

It was a blankness of dismay. The “how did I get here” blankness. Life passes so quickly. When we are young a day seems like a long time. The seniors are now at the point where in 4 days they will graduate from High School and be considered adults in many respects. Those 4 days don’t seem like very long at all.

It was a reminder to me that the author of Ecclesiastes was right.

“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:”

If he were writing to the seniors he might write:
A time to be a child, and a time to be mature.
A time to act young, and a time to think like an adult.
A time to text your friends, and a time to refrain from texting.
A time to anticipate the future, and a time to be surprised at how quickly the future became today.

And for parents

A time to remember our children as children, and a time to treat them as adults.
A time to hope, and a time to fear.
A time to hold on, and a time to let go.

Spring is a season of changes. Changes in the weather, the scenery and the environment. Changes in the church year from lent to Easter and finally Pentecost.
Changes in routine from the structure of the school year to the relative freedom of summer.

That all pales in comparison, though, to the greatest change we experience from child of the world to child of God.

Enjoy the changes. Enjoy the season. And while you are at it, look for the changes and the newness God makes in you whether you are a High School senior becoming an adult, a senior citizen learning satisfaction in the slower pace of retirement, or somewhere in between. There is a

“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:”