Every New Beginning

It’s graduation season. This time of year brings out all the emotions. For high school seniors, it is the end of an era. Twelve consecutive years of early mornings and eight-hour days in the classroom. Math tests, English papers, and extracurriculars consumed the daylight hours. And now, that chapter is closing, turning to the all important questions of what’s next.  

For college seniors, the constant juggling act of making it to class on time, working in-between classes, and finding time to grow into adulthood filled the days. Now, the ever-important question of what’s next looms before them. Thoughts of what the future may hold barrel towards them at light speed. For some, the answers are clear; a beautifully laid-out path before them. For others, a vortex of uncertainty threatens to swallow them whole.  

For the parents of the graduates, there is too much going on to focus on any one thing. Relief that school is finally finished courses through them alongside abject fear of fully releasing their child into the world. Uncertainty about the future of the child they have ushered through life stands side by side with the pride of completion.  

Life is a series of beginnings and endings.  Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end. When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree, it was the end of our peaceful life in the Garden and the beginning of life as we know it. When Noah finished building and filling the ark, the rain began. It’s what we do with those beginnings and endings that matters.  

The Lord lays our path out before us. It is full of choices. Twists and turns. Rights and wrongs. He gives us guides along the way, but it is up to us to follow the signs and guides. As we celebrate the graduates this month, encourage them to walk the path God laid before them. Encourage them to seek Him first. Encourage them to pause and pray before jumping. Guide them as they continue to navigate this thing called life. School may be ending, but the next phase is just beginning.