Between Mother's and Father's Day

 I find it an interesting time to be alive.  We are in between the two days when we celebrate moms and dads.  In our day and age we are redefining the basics about what each of these things are.  At its beginning the Bible describes God as having created humanity in His image as male and female.  Both are needed for the proper family.  The father is to father the child, and the mother is to mother the child.  Male and female - mother and father.  

Our culture has done and is doing its best to simply make mothering and fathering a matter of desire and non-biological relationship.  But this is not fitting with reality.  I have had many women be motherly on my behalf, but I only have one mother.  Many men have been fatherly but I only have one father.  When we confuse this, it becomes impossible to maintain a connection to reality.  

We need to return to understanding life not according to our own views or our culture's views, but instead by the unchanging words of our Maker.  Mother's are to be celebrated - especially those who mother according to God's design.  Father's are to be celebrated - especially those who father according to God's design.  And we can certainly be thankful for those who are motherly or fatherly toward us, but we must remember that they are not our mother.  Nor are they our father.  We must maintain the boundaries that God has set.  

To Him be the Glory.

Graduation

 My son is graduating.  From High School.  Which means he has already graduated from Jr. High.  He has already graduated from Elementary School.  He has already graduated from Kindergarten.  He plans to graduate from college.  All of these graduations and we think that they are somehow marking something. 

Certainly there is a sense in which the graduation is marking accomplishment.  But at its core it simply means that he is moving on to something else.  Graduation is not fundamentally focused on what has been behind, but instead on what is ahead.  The graduate is moving on to the next level, and will continue to do so until there is no level to advance to.  

I think this is in a sense a good way to look at life in general, and specifically the life of the Christian.  What if we looked at death not as the end of something that came prior but as the beginning of the next phase.  The final graduation if you will - the graduation to the final grade!  Just a thought - the metaphor breaks down of course, but I find myself looking at life more biblically when I understand that death is not the end, but the entry point into the glory of the final phase to which God has called me!