Ministry Updates for Friday, May 15th, 2020
Worship—Sunday, May 17th, at 9:30 a.m.
Please join us as we again worship through Facebook Live. Anyone can log on and watch. Use this link to watch the service. And please consider passing it along to a friend. https://www.facebook.com/events/650555092154417/
Scripture for Reflection – Isaiah 48:17
Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you for your own good,
who leads you in the way you should go.
Reflection – For Our Graduates and Their Families
Finding scripture for graduates is not directly possible. Graduation is a modern concept, and a word not found in the Bible. However, the place of faith in Jewish and Christian traditions has always been to acknowledge new phases in someone’s life, whether it was moving from childhood to adulthood, moving from being single to being married, moving through the death of a loved one, being anointed a pastor or priest, or preparing for life after death.
Truth be told, we never really stop learning. All the same, celebration of milestones is important to our overall well-being, and an opportunity for communities to shower love on those who reached them. Such a showing of communal love will hopefully give our graduates a welcome dose of confidence needed for their new beginnings.
The journey for each graduate and their families will be different, both in the broad strokes and in the details. The shifting ways of being in our relationships can be unsettling. But the promises of God remain. God will guide us to the greatest possible good, if only we would listen.
May we all have the wisdom to follow.
Prayer
God who created our minds, our imaginations, our memories, our ability to learn. We give you thanks for those who have completed High School, College, Masters or Ph. D. work. We pray the friendships they have made will remain strong. We pray their gratitude for their teachers and mentors will grow. We pray their learning continues. We pray the new ways of doing and being that will shift their relationships with family and friends will also strengthen those same relationships. We give you thanks, Lord, for this tremendous journey and pilgrimage of life. Amen.