This is the time of year when we find ourselves saying “congratulations” to the graduates among us.
In fact, you may soon find yourself watching with pride and tender emotion a loved one receive a hard earned diploma. The diploma may bear the name of a high school or under-graduate or graduate school. In fact, you may be the one receiving the diploma.
Our Beginnings pre-school will be recognizing graduates… and I plan to be there on May 20. And then on May 30, the Burmese Center for Community Education will be recognizing 20 high school graduates from among their own who attend area high schools. I will have the honor of saying a word to them.
On Sunday, May 31, we will recognize graduates from our church during our morning worship service. My sermon will be “Generation to Generation” and will focus on the ways we are called by God to pass on a legacy of faith.
A number of years ago, I preached a sermon entitled “An Open Letter to Graduates.” I focused on the likely and unlikely things parents, grand-parents, brothers and sisters and others might say to graduating seniors. Every generation brings incredible gifts and graces to the table. Every generation is blessed (and not so blessed) by the generation preceding them. Every generation has something important to offer the generation following them.
I wonder what you might say if you wrote “An Open Letter to Graduates?” I remember I closed with 2 affirmations.
- Thanks be to God.
- We are so very proud of you.
That’s how I still would want to close.