The last couple of weeks, wait no, months has been all about graduation. What we are allowed to wear, what we need to do, and how we should walk on that final day that we are students at Roswell High School. You could feel the excitement in the halls as all the seniors walked by you, our time to leave has finally come.
Like every senior I went through the process of going to grad parties, different church events for seniors, and I attended many different dinners that honored us and the hard work we have done to get to this place. Each event was fun and I loved being able to grow closer with my peers before we all we our separate ways; however, the sadness of leaving kept coming back up in my thoughts. Most of these people I just spent four years of my life with I will never see again, or if I did it would probably be one of those awkward conversations where you say “hi…ok great nice seeing you!”. Why do we spend so much time with these people to then let it lead up to that?! When Jesus returns to the Earth do you think He will look around at us and say, “Well, it was great seeing you guys but I’d rather go back to Heaven with my Father now…great seeing you though!” No. Jesus will look around and just as He did thousands of years ago He will love us, heal us, and give us His time.
When I thought about this there is a question I end up asking myself: What would happen if we reached out, kept in touch, loved, and talked with the people we just spent so much of our lives with. Now I’m not saying you do that with every person you go to school with but at the same time even reaching out to that one kid from freshman year biology might end up changing their life. I see this in my parents when they reconnect with people from their past, God is moving in my parents to help them reach out to people who are struggling but they have no one else to help lead them. I see this and I just sit back amazed at the dedication my parents have to influencing other peoples lives just because God says, Go.
For one of the many senior events we had I got the privileged to sing with my friends Sienna and Torrin. We chose the song “Never Grow Up” by Taylor Swift which starts off with a mom singing to her baby asking her to never grow up and then transitions into the girl growing up and asking to go back to her younger days. While we were singing this song up on stage I looked out into the large crowd of students, and some of them I didn’t even know their name. It made me so sad to see that even though I had gone to school with them for probably some of middle school I still had no idea what their name was or where they were in their life. In that moment I wished I had never grown up so I could go back and learn more about these people, connect with them, and help show them the same love Jesus shows us.
I challenge all of you whether you are still in high school and college, or even if you have graduated a long time ago to connect and reconnect with people. Just let them know that God has put them on your heart and that if they had any prayer requests to let them know. Just show that you care and that even if you didn’t really know them in high school that you are trying to build a relationship with them.
