My daughter graduated from high school on Saturday! While not the graduation ceremony we had envisioned, it was still meaningful and just for her! Her high school sent a faculty/staff representative to the house of each senior on Saturday to present the diploma and move the tassel to the left. We were able to gather a small cheering section on our front yard and, along with her school, still honor the scheduled day of her graduation as well as honoring her. This type of creative thinking is happening everywhere and the common theme is that no one could have anticipated how this school year would have ended!
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)
With a group of women I pray regularly with we prayed this verse over our church for a year. It was the verse God gave us in January, and by the end of that year so much had changed in our church that we never would have asked for or imagined! What we came to realize, though, is that GOD DID! The plans He put in place because of that year of change were better than what we could have hoped for our church, even though walking through that year and following wasn't always easy.
I am reflecting on this verse again now. When my daughter started high school four years ago, and even when she started this senior year, no one could have imagined how her senior year would be honored and remembered, but GOD DID! I for one am thankful for how God chose to see this school year come to an end. In His wisdom God has done far more abundantly with this school year than all we could ask for or think of. He has given us His Holy Spirit to be the power that works through us to accomplish all He puts before us! He is the One who will receive the glory! And for our family, as the story of God's hand in my daughter's graduation in the "Great Pandemic of '20" is retold, it will indeed be throughout all generations!
-Kim Violette, School Ministries Administrative Assistant