Reflections on Graduating.

This morning I'm going to graduate from school (Then i'll have 3 weeks of study before my HSC). 13 years are officially coming to an end and the system of my life that has been in place for more then 2/3 of it is about to change. 

To be honest, that's a bit scary. The world moves on, dragging us with it whether we want to come or not. But at the same time, it's exciting. My world is changing, it's about to expand, it's about to morph into something different then it has been. That's good!

In our lives it seems to me that God blesses us with a great number of good things. The problem we face isn't that we have good stuff from God, the problem is that we are sinful and so easily love these things more than him. I have always loved being at school - for sure, it hasn't always been brilliant, but overall I've loved my class and my teachers and I love learning and I've loved being challenged from the scriptures daily.

That's about to end. In fact, it ended yesterday since today is just going to be devotions and then set up for the assembly. But instead of being overly sad about it, I think I should be focussing on God, praising him for all he has done and rejoicing in his rich mercy and grace. He has seen me through 13 years of school, and he will see me through the rest of my life in the same way. He has proven himself faithful for all of my life this far - I don't need to fear the future because he will be with me (Zephaniah 3:17).

That doesn't mean I'm not sad about it. It doesn't mean I won't miss it. It just means that instead of mourning over this change I need to rejoice over it and look to God's sustaining grace and mercies in both this and the rest of life. I have no doubt that I will come to points like this quite frequently in life - points where everything, or even just small, beloved things, will change. That's usually neither good or bad - it's just a chance to trust God and rely more fully on him because he never changes and we can trust him.

Numbers 23:19

God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?