VBS for this year:
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SUNDAY MORNING from the pastor June 2, 2002 from Edwardsville high school yesterday. As I sat on the gymnasium bleachers for over two hours, there wasn’t much to do but think and feel. We moved to Glen Carbon (the Edwardsville school district) the year before Alison started kindergarten. And when I moved to Urbana last summer, she stayed with her mother in order to complete her senior year with her friends. Since she and I had already ‘parted’ nearly a year ago, I didn’t think her graduation would be so emotional for me. Wrong. As the graduates marched into the field house to "Pomp and Circumstance," I couldn’t see any of those little short people I had shuttled in the kindergarten car pool. Their names were all on the program. And the faces slightly resembled the cute children who piled into the back of my car. But it was surreal. I vaguely recalled all the chattering that went on the that distant car pool. I remember learning about the teacher, older siblings, television shows, new toys, and most astonishing--rumors about who was having ‘s’ ‘e’ ‘x’ with whom in the kindergarten. My daughter and her friends were growing up in a world MUCH different from mine. As these TALL people marched into the field house, I thought of all the former girl scouts and their cookie sales. And my mind flashed back to the year we were the cookie captains and all the cookies in our garage. And I remembered the tee-ball teams and the softball teams--and noticed parent-coaches sitting in the bleachers also. And I remembered that some of those games were longer than the graduation ceremony. And agonizing to watch. As they walked in, I noticed the boys--some of whom Alison had crushes on through the years. And some of whom had crushes on her. I noticed Nicole, whom Alison would be friends with one year, and enemies with the next--all through grade school and high school. And I noticed Kendra, the friend Alison could be crazy with. And I noticed Kelly, the friend who had been on several mission trips with Alison. And I remembered when all these kids got their driver’s licences, and how scary it felt to me. And as Alison walked in wearing her graduation robe, I remembered the day I took the girls to school. We were running late. She was in the second grade, Mindy in the fourth. I had to yell at both of them that morning to get them going. They finally got their coats on, gathered their books, and made a dash for the car--trying to make it before the bell. I drove a little fast that day. And when we pulled up at the school, and Mindy jumped out of the car, Alison announced that she wasn’t dressed. I looked back and sure enough, she still had her pajamas on under her coat. She was late that day. This was the class that witnessed the shootings of Columbine their freshman year. And they saw the World Trade Center attacked and collapse their senior year. Their lives were already rich--with the good and the bad. And yesterday they reached a milestone. May God bless them for all that is to come: the certain--and the unimaginable. Mike |
