Shade Tree Wisdom 5/22/12

          High school proms in full sway, and graduations are underway, and I wonder, “Where will they be when history tells their story?” How will the classes of 2012 do?

          This year there are many who graduate from college with no real prospects of employment, and yet so many are burdened with debt.

          Just as an aside, when I graduated in 1945 one did not do it until all bills were paid, and that was a real worry for many of us. But we managed.

          I just paged through the year book of our graduation year from Concordia Seminary in St Louis, Mo., and wondered where they all are. I know we were sent to many parts of the country. One classmate went to India, spent his life there, and is buried there. Another went to the Philippines. Two ended up as faculty members at our Seminaries. Someone pointed out that not a single member turned out to be elected to District President.

          But no matter, they all served the Lord in His Church, doing what St. Paul writes, (Col. 4,17)
               “Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received
                From the Lord, that thou fulfill it.”

          Or, as J.B.Phillips translates, “God ordained you to your work, see that you don’t fail him.” And that is how we spent our lives.

          My roommate and I were chatting before graduation and we said, “Why don’t we keep in touch with a Round Robin letter”. So we asked several others, and a small group elected to do it. So we did, kept that letter going for 50 years. Then it ended because there were so few left. Today, if we had just kept all those letters, they would prove interesting reading indeed.

          But it also reminds me that Jesus’ sending is being done, and today “there is no speech, nor language, where their voice is not heard.”Ps 19,3

          Therefore, the time spent in wondering leads me always to the Truth that God is Truth, and I have the privilege of being one of His children, because He said so.

GPD 5/22/12