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From the Pastor's Desk

This month, two of my daughters will be completing their Master degrees – a very big accomplishment! One will receive her Master of Library Science degree through the University of Kentucky and the other will receive her Master of Social Work through Virginia Commonwealth University. The former’s entire program of studies for her two-year degree has been online, while the latter’s program of studies has been an in-person, intensive one-year program. Needless to say, my wife and I are both very proud of them both, and we plan to celebrate this milestone with them.

When you stop and think about it, life is full of milestones; some big and others small. Collectively, this is how we measure the passage of time in our lives with milestones such as learning to drive and getting our driver’s license; graduating from high school and college; moving away from home and launching out on our own; getting our first job; becoming engaged and getting married; the birth of children and becoming a parent; job promotions or starting a new career; retiring from work; etc. All of these and more help us understand that time moves very quickly, and life passes by all too fast.

What are the milestones, visible or invisible, in your life? Maybe these include things like old family photos, certificates, diplomas, uniforms, scrapbooks, mementos, or other items that tell a story. These become an important part of our family history, but don’t assume that everyone in the family knows that story! Generally, there is one person in each family in each generation who is the family historian. It’s never a good idea for just one person to have all the information, though. Share it! As we go along in life, we tend to have questions about our forebears and our own family history. Tell the story (or stories)! Figure out ways to share this information with others in the family so that the history doesn’t get lost over time. Bring extended family members together, whether in person or virtually, to share the history and tell the story.

From a faith perspective, milestones are part of the story of God’s people. For example, after they had gone through their wilderness wanderings for forty years and after Moses had died, God’s people were crossing over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. As with the Red Sea, God caused the waters of the Jordan to stop flowing so that the people could cross over on dry ground. Pretty amazing stuff! God then directed Joshua, Moses’ successor, to have the people take up twelve stones from the Jordan and erect a memorial so that when future generations would see this and ask what it meant, this would become a teachable moment to share with the next generation all that the Lord God had done for his people (Joshua 4 ESV - Twelve Memorial Stones from the Jordan - Bible Gateway). These memorial stones became a visible milestone that helped God’s people to tell the story of God’s mighty deliverance. This is but one example from Scripture about milestones of faith.

This month also marks the Rite of Confirmation in my own congregation as young people reaffirm their Baptismal vows in the Rite of Confirmation. This is a big faith milestone! The liturgy for Holy Baptism appears again in the liturgy for Confirmation, and that is by design. In Baptism, parents and godparents respond for their child. In Confirmation, that child now answers for himself or herself. The Confirmand takes what has been given to him or her, and now accepts responsibility for continued growth in the Christian faith. None of this is done in isolation, of course. Parental and congregational involvement continues to be important. Faith is personal, but it is never private. It is never just “Jesus and me.” We are knit together with fellow believers in the whole Church on earth and in heaven. Confirmation is important, but it is only one milestone in a series of faith stepping stones throughout our entire life. As we tell our Confirmands, “Confirmation does not equal graduation.” This side of heaven, we never stop learning and growing in Jesus our Savior and what it means to follow him as his disciples. We are called to be lifelong learners and disciples as Peter wrote at the close of his second epistle: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18). In other words, keep on growing! Don’t stop growing!

If milestones are to have any meaning, we must know the story behind them. This is true especially when it comes to faith. Most of us will readily confess that there is much about Scripture that we don’t know or understand. In all of us, there is some level of Biblical illiteracy. So what will we do about that? Start “reading, marking, learning, and inwardly digesting” the Word of God! All of us lead busy lives, that is for sure. But it’s also true that we make time for what is important to us. Here is encouragement to start spending time in the Word of God. Start small with something that is manageable – maybe just 10 minutes a day and grow from there. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, this will become increasingly important time for you. You’ll want to start spending more time in the Word! There are lots of resources out there, including daily online devotions through Lutheran Hour Ministries (lhm.org). All of this will lead to new milestones in life as we grow in faith toward God and in love toward others.

Rejoice and give thanks for those milestones in life! Through these we see how much we are loved by God “who so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).