A Prayer For Graduation

A Prayer for Graduation

O God, Creator of beginnings and endings,

We pray for our graduate.

Walk ahead of them and beside them

As they step into a big world

Littered with loss but glittering with hope.

You were there for every

newborn squeal and first step and lost tooth.

Remind us that You are with them now, too,

As our child looks ahead

And wonders what is to come.

We lament the ways we have confused

productivity with worth

And projected that onto our children.

And we pray that our graduate will know

Their belovedness

Doesn’t rest in their accomplishments.

We pray for an emboldened generation

That refuses to accept the systems they’ve inherited.

And we pray that we will support them

As they use their imagination and energy,

Passion and creativity

To love the world You made and the people in it.

O God, Creator of beginnings and endings,

We pray for our graduate.

Be with us as we celebrate in new ways.

And when we cannot celebrate,

Be with us as we cry.

Give them, and us,

A new lens for seeing the world

And hope for the future

In Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Hebrews 11:1; Colossians 3:17