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Last Saturday my family attended my daughter’s high school graduation ceremony at the Civic Center. Overall, it was a good experience even though we have to wait for more than 40 min. to get in. The ceremony was full of excitement and speeches from guests of honor and student graduates. Among the student graduates’ speeches, the recollection of high school years and appreciations extended to school teachers and guidance counsels were good and interesting. Speeches delivered by the guests of honor – the school superintendent, a police detective, a member from the education board and the school principal – were very inspiring. Particularly, the use of wheelbarrow as an analogy, by the high school principal, to illustrate that student graduates have to learn how to strike balance between load and goal in the future was an enlightening perspective.

After the ceremony, it was Kodak time for friends and families. I find that it was difficult to find a clear space for picturing, especially when you need to gather a few persons together. There were two interesting phenomena that I observed. One is families were eager to find a good spot for this special occasion in order to have a picture with their graduates.  It competes, however, with the other phenomenon – the graduates were eager to find their classmates to hug and to chat, as this could be their last opportunity to get together. Thus, we ended up to grab whatever space was available at that time to take a picture. It seems to me the emotion of excitement and reluctance to part among the graduates was the real reason crowded the Civic Center. As a result, we left the Center around 8:00PM … 🙂

The affection among the student graduates is the one that I find very precious. I thank God for giving us feeling for others – as we are not robots with programmed rules and architected structures; we are human beings with God’s breath. We can share our life journey with others and build a relationship with them. The sharing experience of life journey essentially provides us a good memory and it supports our next step of our life journey.

When Jesus was in this world, He chose 12 disciples to follow Him. He lived with them and shared with them for three and half years. The caring love and life examples that Jesus gave to them is one of the key thrusts that strengthen their journey of faith.  Every time I read the Gospel of John, the conversation between apostle Peter and Jesus would intrigue me. Especially, the question from Jesus to Peter, “Do you love me?” was asked three times repeatedly. Of course, you may already know the purpose of Jesus’ question to Peter is to re-establish Peter’s faith. (John 21:15-17). Jesus’ encouragement to Peter let me think of the famous hymn: “What a friend we have in Jesus!”

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grieve to bear!

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,

all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

My dear brothers and sisters, as we all love our children, oftentimes we also like to know whether they feel the same way, right? Therefore, let me ask you a question. What would you say if our Lord Jesus asks you today, “Do you love me?” Do you have an answer for Him?

You can keep your answer to yourself, of course. But, please remember, our Lord knows our heart.