Works in progress
This has to be one of my favorite seasons of the year. And no, I’m not talking about the slightly cooler temperatures, nor am I referring to the arrival of college football season. I’m talking about back-to-school time.
It’s this time of the year that so many people I love are sending their kids back to school and thus putting on social media all of the “first day of school” pictures.
I love the boards held by the little ones declaring what their favorite class is, what they want to be when they grow up, and what their favorite color currently is. I love the sibling pictures as you can see height gaps shrink or increase.
I look forward to seeing the faces I once saw as belonging to little kids now have a more grown up shape. Of course, each of these changes comes with an “I remember them when…” reflection.
Equally, I love the teachers who post their back-to-school pics often with notes about how many years this will be for them in the classroom. No longer tracking height changes, these pics are marked by changes in hair color.
In the context of our Christian worship, we talk about liturgy, the patterns of what we do. Back-to-school pictures are a great liturgy of our social and communal life and one that is a joy to behold. When viewed side by side, year over year, you start to see that in the passage of time, these are pictures of people who are constantly learning. Learning how to care for neighbors and live in community; learning how to ask the meaningful questions about God in this world; learning how to let go of the things that are out of our control and instead let God be God.
Each picture is a moment at a threshold. And we should give thanks for all of these moments that spur us to simultaneous reflection and anticipation
I celebrated my 17th ordination anniversary a couple of weeks ago. As a habit, I look over a book I have in which I record every funeral and baptism I’ve done. It’s a habit I developed to help me remember those who have formed me into the pastor that I am (and the pastor God needs me to be). It is also a time to look forward. To give thanks for the saints I haven’t met yet, to the ministries still being dreamed, to the people who don’t know of God’s great love (yet).
These milestones in our lives are important because without them, it’s easy to fall into a rut remembering only what you have lost or how you have failed or what you wish you would have become. When we do that, we forget to notice the sometimes incremental ways that God has shown up in the monotony of our daily lives.
To say that all of us are works in progress is a well-worn trope, but it’s well worn because it is true. None of us are stuck in those back-to-school pictures, but each one of us is blessed with new opportunities to ask what God is forming us into today and tomorrow.
The liturgy of back-to-school pictures, or anniversaries, is more than just a marker of the day, they are guideposts for what we are being formed to be.
Look at them all with a smile, admire the back-to-school clothes, rejoice with the teachers who give so much. But also take a moment to reflect on what God is doing in and through you today, imagine the ways that God will guide you into even greater faith and closer community.
Smile! And then see how God is going to show up.
