Graduation Day

"In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love", said Alfred Loyd Tennyson. Everyone loves the spring time. It is a time of new hope and fresh plans. It is a time for weddings and proms and mainly for graduations. In just a few weeks young people all over the nation will be graduating from both high school and college. They will, no doubt, be full of hopes and dreams for the future. I'm sure there are many busy making plans for "after graduation." Some are cramming for final exams; others are wondering if they will pass math or English in time to graduate. Very few have anything long term on their minds.

As important as graduation is, there is another date which is far more important. It is a date that all of us must keep and for which very few are truly prepared. The date is not set in stone; it is different for all of us. It is the date on which we will graduate from this life. Hebrews 9:27 tells us that it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgement. You see, that day will truly be a graduation day. Right now is just the school time that is preparing us for where we will spend eternity. We are taking the tests at this very moment. On that day the books will be opened (Revelation 20:12) and the grades will be read. It will be too late to study. Whatever grades we have made will be recorded there for everyone to see.

I don't know about you, but I made a few grades in school that I really would not want anyone to see. Some of my college classes I had to retake because I wasn't as diligent as I could have been the first time around. I'm sure we've all had to take make-up tests because we were absent from school on a certain day. On that day, there will be no make-up tests. The make-ups must be done before one's name is called.

We must all examine ourselves to see if we are ready for that day or not. If not, there is still hope. There is still time to find a place of repentance and let the blood of Jesus wash us clean. There is still time to restore that broken relationship that we messed up. There is still time to right any wrongs that we may have done to someone, whether intentionally or not. But I challenge you not to wait too long thinking that there is plenty of time. Your graduation day may be sooner than you expected.

Thoughtfully Yours,

Sullivan Jones