Baccalaureate

How exciting! This is the first year I will be able to attend the baccalaureate services before graduation. How wonderful it is to congregate in the education wing hallway with fellow faculty, all of us decked in our robes and mortarboards, our hood colors flying, so official looking. The color for Library Science is yellow, for music pink, for theology, scarlet. I love marching in graduation. Now I will be able to take part in the service celebrating the students and their lives of learning.

The service is well attended. Parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends fill the pews to overflowing. We sit on the platform in the choir space and face the graduating students in the center sections. It is a momentous occasion. For some families, it is the first time anyone has graduated from among them. For others, it is the last child of several. The women have paid careful attention to their outfits beneath the black robes, stellar shoes, perfect hair and makeup the only visible signs of their hard efforts.

Together we sing hymns, hear Scripture, laugh at the speaker's jokes, acknowledge those who have merited special recognition. Not a wedding. But just as important, this passage from semi-independent to full adulthood. They still look young, innocent, naive. But they are not. They are ready. They will do well. It makes you proud and humble and hopeful to see these fledglings leave the collegiate nest and strike out on their own. If we have taught them well, the world will be a better place. May it be so.