This past Sunday, I experienced the parental joy of seeing my son graduate from Illinois College with a degree in Computer Science.  I was so proud of him!  In seems such a short time ago that I taught him how to ride a bicycle by running along beside him.

    Seeing my son in his graduation robe, surrounded by the other graduates, and experiencing “the pomp and circumstance” of the graduation ceremony made me feel introspective about life and its future challenges for my son--and even for myself.   What joys and sorrows lie ahead of him or of any graduate or of all of us?  What pitfalls and opportunities lie hidden just around the bend of the path on which we are walking?
    When St.  Paul was chained in prison for preaching Jesus Christ as Savior, he wrote these words in Philippians 3:13f, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
    St.  Paul was also facing an unknown future with its pitfalls and sorrows and joys and opportunities. His response was to forget what he had already endured in the sense of dwelling on his sufferings and sorrows.  Instead he strained to reach out for the future--not because he was unhappy in the present, even though he was languishing in prison, but because his future contained Christ his Savior.
    He understood that Christ would never abandon him in his sufferings, that Christ had called him to live for him in the service of sharing the good news of the forgiveness of sins and that Christ would call him to heaven, when his ministry on earth was completed.
    So, also Christ has prepared a future for our children, especially for our graduates as we think about them at this time of the year, in which He will bless them, watch over them and use them for his good purposes. 
    Christ deals with each of us in the same way.  He’s promised that He will never leave us nor abandon us and will always be with us to the end of time (Matthew 28:20). 
    So, like St.  Paul, it is good for us to forget the sorrows and sufferings of the past and run toward a future filled with Christ’s blessings and presence.  In the words of St.  Paul, we joyfully “strain toward what is ahead!”