… for the week of May 25, 2025
Graduating in Faith
This is a season of celebration—in the church, to be sure, but also in the lives of families who eagerly anticipate graduation ceremonies. Graduations can happen at any time of life, either in the formal sense or in the many informal ways humans commemorate transitions into new phases of life. For many of us, however, May and June are Graduation Central, with all the excited hoopla that implies.
When a child graduates from a school or program, parents face the bittersweet transition of letting go. The high school senior may leave home for college, the military, or independent employment; the college graduate may head off toward the myriad adventures of adulthood. Even the newly minted preschool alum eagerly anticipates the broader fields of big-kid school and greater independence.
Amid the excitement, pride, fear, and uncertainty, those who have cared for these loved ones—parents, mentors, teachers, and others—hope their voices will travel with the grads. Remember, child, what we have taught you. Remember who you are. Remember whose you are.
How fitting, then, that at this time of year the church reminds itself that God feels the same way about us. God wants the voice of the Spirit to travel with us. God sends us the Advocate—one who will stay with us even when Jesus physically returns to his Parent. In baptism, we have graduated into lives in Christ that may take us to unpredictable places. In this world of uncertainty, however, we trust that, as Jesus assures us, we need not be troubled or afraid. The One who reminds us who we are, and whose we are, is always with us.
Devotional message based on the readings for May 25, 2025, reprinted from sundaysandseasons.com.
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… Happy Easter