Yes, it is that time of the year again when so many of our young people will receive their first, or second, or even another higher degree. It is also that time of the year when many of our youth will celebrate this momentous occasion and in the process die as the result of circumstances not unlike those we all faced at a similar age. The thing is, if we could foretell the future there are choices none of us would make. I'm assisting a neighbor prepare for her daughter's graduation celebration. This one is High School. My own HS graduation was stained by the vision of those who did not make it past the night. Since that time I have followed news reports, first in our own state out here on the Great American Desert, and then from others. I didn't think it could be like that all over the states. Sadly, I was mistaken. Every year we lose many of these bright young people to the "celebration" that ends all possibilities of future celebration. I pray with parents, I pray with youth, but the one thing I cannot do is change their actions once they are chosen. I praise God that there are so many that survive, and I give thanks for those that have come down the ancestral lineage I carry. I have a lot more graduations to look forward to, but there are many who do not. I would submit to you tonight that we need to be in prayer for those who are about to matriculate. Pray for their choices. Pray for their safety when they make poor chices. But most of all I would like to pray for their salvation to be a reality before realities end on this plane.
Everyone of us, more than likely, has a horror story they could share about personal experiences with graduations. Reflect these coming Sundays on how we as a believing nation can help to impact the number of youth who will not make it back from the "party" that someone provides. We are, every one of us, only as strong in the God whom we serve, as our helplessness we become aware of in the lives of those close to us. Put the ones in your communities on your list, and pray with me, with us, with all the believers in Christ Jesus, that none of the young are ever lost without the knowledge of our Savior. I think that is one of the things my paternal grandmother prayed the most for, that I would live through the "fun" and become what God would have me be for the sake of His Son. In Christ's Love, Preacher.
