It’s the Sunday morning when our eyes well with emotion, when we honor our high school seniors by wrapping a blanket around their shoulders and saying a prayer together for the journey ahead…

Wherever you wander, no matter how dark the night, remember our unending love for you, and the welcome you will always find in God’s family.

If the blankets and prayer don’t have you reaching for a Kleenex, there are always the photos of the 44 seniors today and back when they were little. Or as Dr. Howell described them from the pulpit, the before-and-after shots. Look at Robert Blanton and how his head is turned at exactly the same angle as a little boy and now as a young adult. How sweet is that? How sweet are all of them? No matter who fast they grow up, we will forever see their gap-toothed smiles in our hopes and fears and dreams.

Spring’s the perfect time to do this. Commencement is coming, then summer, then whatever adventure follows. There’s a freshness in the air, a sense that yesterday’s rain real and symbolic will bring forth something new and good.

And so I watch our high school seniors and their parents gather at the front of the Sanctuary at the 11 o’clock service, and I think about walking a step or two behind them from now on. We don’t want to get too close, or get in their way. But life’s path can be treacherous, and it wouldn’t hurt to be there when they stumble.