Looking Backward As We Move Forward
It is graduation season, a time where academic achievement is celebrated and moving forward ceremonies are conducted. Family, friends, faculty, and the community gather to honor the graduate.
These ceremonies tend to focus on the future. Speakers inspire graduates with words about the future glories that await. Scholarship are awarded with an anticipation of a bright future. Students arrive at the ceremony with cap and gown but depart as graduates with the future ahead.
Within the futuristic tender of these days, it is wise that the events and lessons of past are remembered.
Psalms 77:11-12 reminds us to remember the deeds of the Lord, remember the miracles of the Lord from long ago.
An 18-year-old graduate of the class of 2024 was born in 2006. In the less than two decades of their lives the first iPad became available, the MeToo movement was born, COVID stopped the world. Americans elected its first black president, then it elected and defeated Donald Trump. Who is on the brink of being elected again in the first election that they will get an opportunity to cast a ballot.
It would be wise that these graduates bring the past with them when they vote for the first time. The past that included Jim Crow, the past that included the Civil Rights Movement, the past that include D-Day, The Vietnam War, and the current wars in Ukraine and Garza.
The past is the future prolog for the achievements that the class of 2024 will make, the setback they will experience and the wars that they will fight.
May God’s riches blessings come to the Class Of 2024. As the future dawns let us remember and use as inspiration the words of
Psalm 41. God will be a refuge and strength a very present help in trouble as we look back to move forward.