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!