An Alumni

I brought my oldest son to college a few weeks ago.  It happens to be where my wife and I graduated from (Oral Roberts University- www.oru.edu).  Quite an experience really-unbelievable really!  The part that got me most was thinking about how fast time has gone by.  I remember my son as an infant and toddler, so to see him now as an undergrad is mind boggling.

We did all the things that new student orientation offered- meetings, moving in the dorm, meeting other parents, and saying goodbye. As an alumni, I also wanted to get a feel for the kind of students that were coming to the school these days.  I was really impressed with their desire to hear from God and their passion to figure out His purpose for their lives.

As I sat around one of the cafeteria tables talking to them and sharing some of my college experiences, one of them asked when I graduated.  That’s when it hit me.  I’m not only an alumni- I’m old.  I stopped myself when I was about to say it.  “I graduated in 1984, that was twenty-five…….!!!” Twenty-five years ago!  That was before any of them were born, that was beyond their comprehension.  Where has the time gone?  Fortunately, these students were very gracious Christian kids.  They didn’t laugh or make comments regarding my age, they just smiled and thought the things they could say.

I am an alumni and I am happy that my son is off to college.  But, I am also coming to grasp with the fact that time flies and youth is not something we can hold onto.  Fortunately, I still feel young (although my kids remind me that it’s not cool to act like I’m younger than I am).  Aging is not a bad thing…really, it isn’t, I keep on telling myself.  In fact God says that there is a blessing of wisdom that is upon those who have aged by following His Word and learning along the way.

So, let life come, let time come, let my kids grow up and my hair fall out (slowly please)…and let me be able to say like the writer of the Psalms- I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread. I pray that you will age gracefully and become an alumnus of God’s school of study.

-Peter