CHILDREN RUNNING THE RACE

I received a great present for my birthday--a picture of my 10-year old son, Nathan, crossing the finish-line of the Colleyville Race to Read 5k, his first race. He did a great job, finishing forth, in just over 30 minutes. But it's not where he finished, or how fast he ran--it's the expression on his face that I can see in the picture but could not see at the time (because he was running several yards ahead of me at the finish). There is a bit of tiredness, but showing through all there is this wide-open glad sense of accomplishment from finishing his first race (ahead of his dad). I am also in the picture, about fifteen yards behind; and my memory was that I was sucking wind and more tired than I ought to have been. But my face, too, was lit up with a big smile as I was watching my son cross the finish line ahead of me.

This, it seems to me, is what parents, and congregations, hope for in regards to their children--to help them run the race, and to run it with them for a while, and then to have the joy of watching their little bottoms move on ahead and cross the finish-line in front of them. RS