Tonight, my daughter Peyton will walk across the stage and accept her diploma from the principal of her high school.  After years of preparation, countless classes, and thousands of homework assignments and tests, she will be able to say she has completed what was required of her and graduate with the class of 2022.

Her journey has not been an easy one.  With school came hard work and battles that had to be faced.  There were requirements that felt difficult.  There were challenges and hurdles that needed to be overcome and there were times that she felt as if it was all for nothing.  But at the end of tonight, she will receive her congratulations for a job well done.

I think to what it will look like when I have completed my journey here on earth.  I long for the days when I can say as Paul did to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;” –2 Timothy 4:7. 

When we reach the end of our lives, I will imagine we that we will feel very similar to how Peyton feels today.  We will have accepted Christ as our Savior, studied God’s Word and honored His commands.  Perhaps we felt like the assignment God laid out for us seemed unusual, but we did it anyway.  Maybe we failed at times…miserably failed…and then turned back to God, asking the Holy Spirit to lead us back on track.  I wonder if we would feel that we were ‘missing out’ on worldly things, knowing that we were called to be strangers in a foreign land.

And while we know that our journey was not an easy one, the reward we receive at the end of it all will be worth it.  The bible speaks to the inheritance that is ours as believers.  When we have completed our race, when we have finished the course, our diploma is an eternity in heaven with the Creator of everything!  We have no more sadness, no sickness, no pain.  We worship God and lay crowns at His feet!  We sing with angels! 

I can’t wait for the moment when I can stand before my Heavenly Father and He says to me, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” 

Today, while I congratulate Peyton and her classmates as they complete their journey of school, I pray that I never forget the journey of life that we must go through as Christians, knowing that we will be greeted and congratulated on a job well done when our time is done, too.

~Erin