A Graduation Congratulatory Letter

12 February 2013

Dear E.A.:

It is an auspicious occasion for this New Year, when news of your completing the academic disciplines of a secondary education came in the post a fortnight ago. Surely, the photograph of you in the graduation announcement is a shower of beauty. A portrait poised with confidence with an eye toward the future. Congratulations, indeed!

Only your family can truly treasure with deep affection and satisfaction of your arriving at this milestone. Looking back at the path and aisles of the years, through your parents, you are shaded by God’s verdant mercy of the leaves overhead; on nurturing you along the way they have leaned on the strong pillars of His faithfulness and steadfastness.

Your allusion to Romans 15:4 calls to mind the family man Jacob's return to Bethel. After twenty winters of vicissitude, Jacob reconsecrated himself at Bethel. It was there young Jacob had wrestled God and in awe called the place, “the house of God and the gate of heaven.” Whether you stay in Foyil or seek ventures elsewhere, allot time to return to the haunts of your childhood. Your parents’ abode is where you first witnessed the altar of communion with God. Home is a place of blessing; it is where “steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.”

Enclosed is a graduation gift for your achievements. May the “beauty of His countenance” always shine on “where’er you walk.”