Memorial Day weekend, we went to attend our daughter’s college graduation ceremony – it is an event of her life time and we’re sure don’t want to miss it. When we arrived at the college campus that morning, we saw the big college stadium was filled with crowd and we couldn’t even find a place to sit down. We ended up standing up from the beginning to the end. Fortunately it was a cool day and the ceremony was not lengthy, so we enjoyed the scene without much sweating 🙂 After the ceremony, we were asked to attend her departmental reception thinking that it would be short and sweet, comparing with college-wide main ceremony. Boy, we were wrong – the reception was more than twice longer than the main ceremony. As a result, we had to hurry back to our daughter’s apartment after the reception in order to help her pack stuff in preparing for someone to move in. It is really a laborious looooong day…. 🙁

I still remember the very first time we dropped our daughter off at the college campus. It was a hot summer day and we had to unload a lot of stuff into her dorm, as this is the first time she has to stay with others for a long while. The moment we prepared to leave, I saw her eyes filled with reluctance to part. In fact, we were reluctant too.

Time really flies! Four years later, she finished her college education and we see her growth in confidence and maturity in managing her life. By no means, she is still our baby girl even though the day will come when she is ready to leave us to form her own family.

As I was reflecting my past experience, I once again realize that how gracious our God is. He granted us children in order for us to learn how to teach, to love and to lead them. Through the process of parenting, we may have many joyful occasions – even though mixes with heart aches, longing and waiting times, sometimes. All in all, it is a great heritage and reward for us to learn the heart and love of our Heavenly Father, as King Solomon indicated, “Children are a heritage from the LORD and a reward from Him 兒女是耶和華所賜的產業，所懷的胎是他所給的賞賜 (Psalm 127:3)”

In fact, the palmist in Psalm 136 indicates that our God’s love endures forever as He remembered us in our low estate and freed us from our enemies. He gives food to every creature (Psalm 136: 23-25) 他顧念我們在卑微的地步，他救拔我們脫離敵人，他賜糧食給凡有血氣的，因他的慈愛永遠長存！Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, we should give thanks to the God of heaven for His love endures forever.