We showered love, prayers and blankets on our high school seniors at the 11 o’clock service, the blankets a symbol of our commitment to wrap them in our arms now and forever.

But on this Sunday at Myers Park United Methodist Church, it’s the photos that always get to me, snapshots of lives that do not remain forever young.

Included with each worship bulletin on this tender, traditional morning are two photos of each member of the Class of 2009. There’s a shot of each high school senior, of course, looking mature, confident and ready to face college, work, military and the other grown-up challenges coming faster than they know. Beside that photo is a snapshot of the teenager as a child – a then-and-now pairing that makes a parent smile, then ache, then remember how quickly time flies.

How could this be? Wasn’t it yesterday that Stacy Joseph and Julia Lawler were showing off all those missing baby teeth through their sweet smiles? Why did all that precious, soft, blond hair on so many of our kids’ heads have to turn darker with the years? Why can’t I keep driving them to preschool?

I know that’s what a lot of parents (and grandparents) were thinking Sunday during the service because that’s what I think whenever I pick up an old photo of our kids. Heck, that’s what I think whenever I talk to our 27-year-old son about his career or our 24-year-old daughter about grad school. Where does the time go? Why must they grow up? Why can’t forever young be one of life’s truths and not a dream of the heart?

Tomorrow, we pray, will be filled with great and good things for our teen-agers.

If only we could hold on to yesterday, too.