There was a special service this week for the graduating class. It was housed in the Cathedral, which is a sacred space fitting for the message being given.
"We welcome you to step into adulthood, and you are loved by God."
There were family members who offered their own prayers. Some were spoken, and others were sung. A cluster of prayers will come winging from South Africa like a flock of birds next week. The parents that sang The Lord's Prayer were incredible.
The students were invited up to
the chancel. I was as far away from them as it is possible to be while still being in the same building, and I could still feel the tenderness. Five fathers and teachers placed cupped hands on each bowed head... the girls with silky clean tresses, the boys with dreads and fresh hair cuts. I could not actually hear the whispered blessings, but that is how it should be. They were private, a post script on a term or a childhood of attention.
The event was an interlude between the exuberant and pompous events that are crowded into a busy weekend. It happened before they pulled on robes and mortarboards, but after they emptied out their lockers.
Yet I believe that God makes the most of such moments.
“The Lord's foresight and providence are present within the tiniest details of
all the smallest individual things with him, and in details so tiny that it is impossible to comprehend in any manner of thought one in many millions of them. For every smallest fraction of a moment of a person's life entails a chain of consequences extending into eternity.”
Emanuel Swedenborg, Heavenly Secrets 3854
