School Starts Next Week. This is My Prayer.

My daughter is starting high school, and as proud as I am of her, I couldn’t be more overwhelmed at the nature of life. It feels like just yesterday I was driving behind the yellow school bus as she started kindergarten. I prayed that God would go with her, and that she’d make some good friends.

This always seems to be my prayer. That God would go with my children, and that they’d make some good friends. That they’d find their courage when they need it most, and that they would be kind to others. That others would be kind to them.

I’ve asked a lot of my two kids.

I have dropped them off for school in the middle of southern Chile, knowing they’d spend most of their days in confusion, trying to grasp a few new words each day and somehow learn to form a coherent sentence.

I have dropped them off at a new bus stop, whilst living with friends, where they knew no one.

I moved them to Lake Joy and asked them to start again in a new city while they were still finding their way after great loss.

The truth is, we do the very best we can as parents, and sometimes it’s just not enough. Sometimes, many times, our everything barely fills the glass to half-way. So, we ask God to fill in the gaps, to string the empty and broken places together with grace and love and tender kindness.

This is what God does. God strings our lives together with grace. We are most certainly not enough as parents. Even if we’ve got it all together and nothing is awry, we’re still not enough.

As your children start school, as they go into a world you have little control of and hardly any power over, know that God’s grace is present and they will find their way. They will make that one friend who will make their world a better place. They will find their way to class, and figure out who to sit next to at lunch. They will get to the end of the day ready to come home and not tell us anything about it, until they are ready to tell us what they decide to tell us.

And the thing is, God will be there. God won’t be fixing everything, making sure that nothing bad happens. That’s not what we get from God, but God’s presence will be there as a companion on the way, ready to help as they learn to ask for it, stringing things together with grace upon grace.

Paul Tillich says that God is the ground of all being. I could use a little grounding this Monday morning.

This is my prayer:

As our children go into school this year, and face this world, as unsafe and crazy as it is, I pray that God would ground them in love and courage. That God would kindle hope where there is only despair, would shine light in those sad places where there seems to be only darkness. That God would give us parents and teachers eyes to see what really matters and leave the rest for later. That our children would find grace where they least expect it, and kindness where they need it most. And finally, I ask that Jesus himself would walk with them as their unseen friend. And somehow, against all odds, may God’s grace be enough.

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