Why I have hope for the children

She’s been making her plans, researching colleges, getting ready to take flight.

Reluctant at first, but now less so, she begins to imagine life on campus.

But America has begun to change, like a slap in the face,

I watch her plan, but I wonder, “what now?”

And often she smacks up against a cancellation, or headline that makes her question, “What now?”

I don’t know, daughter.

I don’t know what this summer will be like, or fall, or next fall.

Yes, it could be fundamentally different. 

Yes, our new normal could be nothing like we imagined or planned. 

So, what now? 

What if the future we experience is nothing like the future for which we planned?

“To know Christ and to make him known.” (Classical Conversations Mission statement)

“To receive God’s goodness and reflect his generosity.” (The Christian life as described by John Kleinig)

These words describe the highest and best aims of education, of parenting, of the life of the Christian. These words are rooted deeply in the reality of God as we know him in Christ, and God does not change like shifting societies.

So what of the future, mom?

Will you grow in knowledge of God? I think you will, even it if means fighting against distractions and temptations to cling to His word. Will there be God’s goodness to receive? Yes, of course, He will continue to pour it out in grace and mercy on His children in all places as He has always done. 

Will you have eyes to see His goodness?

God’s people know Him and receive all good things from His hand, sometimes right in the midst of great suffering, sometimes right there on the cliff’s edge, or deep in the valley of the shadow of death. His rod and His staff and His continual presence in Word and sacrament will give you comfort wherever you go.

And what, then, shall I do? 

Will you “make him known,” will you “reflect his generosity?” Of course you will, that is what God’s children do. You may be called to reflect God’s goodness on your college campus or in your vocation; or it may be in some other way.  God’s goodness is so multi-faceted it can be reflected anywhere: at Starbucks, at a babysitting job, even at a stoplight.

I do not know the plans He has for you. But there will be goodness and mercy from the hand of God, and there will be neighbors on whom you can pour His love.

Meanwhile, we wait in uncertainty, clinging to a certain God. 

We wait here, with open hands and hearts, 

Training

and living 

our lives together (for now) 

in Christ (forever),

To know and make known,

receive and reflect,

The love of God as we know it in Jesus.

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 24-25)