Opinion: For everything there is a season

We are approaching graduation season. Winston Churchill once said: “This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, and this is just perhaps the end of the beginning.” I don’t think Churchill was referring to graduations per se but there is some depth to that statement.

In reality, graduation is both an ending and a beginning. Whole new experiences and challenges await those graduating from any educational level. There will be graduations from colleges, high schools, middle schools and graduations from kindergarten and preschool. Graduation ceremonies will involve famous speakers and not so famous speakers. Long processions of professors in colorful robes will lead graduates in as they file into auditorium and coliseums all across the country. Mothers will cry when children graduate from kindergarten and mothers will cry when their children graduate from high school. In fact, from my experience I know that Mothers will cry at all levels of graduations!

Ceremonies will be held all around the county in the month of May. Famous speakers will be paid to give words of encouragement to those who are going out in the world to start a new career. Parties and festivities will be held in homes and churches and community centers to mark the endings of a high school careers and the beginnings of a new paths in life.

Yes, graduation is both an ending and a beginning. Yet, all of life is like that. Life is a series of endings and beginnings and all through our lives we will be on one end or the other.

The good news is that the Bible says that these things are all part of life. The preacher in Ecclesiastics wrote that there is a time for all the events, the beginnings and endings in our lives:

For everything there is an appointed time,

and an appropriate time for every activity on earth:

A time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to uproot what was planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to search, and a time to give something up as lost;

a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

A time to rip, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silent, and a time to speak.

A time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastics 3: 1-8)

So if you are a parent or grandparent that is watching teary eyed as that child leaves preschool or high school or college, think about it: Would you have it any other way? There are countless parents who would love to see children flourishing, growing and taking steps to an independent future. The changes we face in life are the normal flow of growing up, acclimating to new and following fresh dreams.

Yet, no matter what phase of this life any of us may be in, no matter how much our lives seem to be changing and no matter how we are uprooted with that change, we can be confident, secure and have a purpose in life knowing that God has a plan for each of us.

The old prophet Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.’”

These are meaningful words no matter if we are the graduate or the parent. We can be confident of God’s promise and His plan.

Judy Brandon writes about faith for the Clovis News Journal. Contact her at:

[email protected]