“Milestones” By Pastor Joe

“Milestones” By Pastor Joe

Long ago, ancient Romans placed stone pillars called "obelisks" along the sides of roadways. Typically, the stones were placed a mile apart. Each “milestone" was given a unique number, serving as a mile marker. Today most people are familiar with the word “milestone," but we use it in a slightly different way. A milestone is a significant event in your life. Often a milestone marks the start of a new chapter. For example, the day you graduated from high school was a milestone in your life. These days, the word is more often used figuratively to refer to significant events in life, such as getting married. It acts sort of like the road sign: it's often a moment when you reflect on where you stand in life. A milestone can also be a non-personal event which results in a big change, such as a milestone victory or a company's sales milestone.

Today we are celebrating a great milestone in the lives of our high school graduates. It has been the practice of Hawthorne Assembly to present a quilt to each of the graduates. This handmade quilt is assembled by many loving hands of this fellowship. A very personal gift and a great remembrance of this day in their life. A great milestone marker. I still remember when I graduated from high school back when schools still had a baccalaureate service. The baccalaureate service was not required but most of the students still participated where we remembered how God was present in every area our life. A guest speaker shared from a Christian worldview about this great milestone. When, Tim, our youngest son, recently graduated from college obviously his graduation service was in a sense a baccalaureate service at the same time. North Central University made sure this day would serve as a spiritual milestone. In most high schools today the option of a baccalaureate service is not offered, so I’m thankful our fellowship will be honoring our graduates and my sermon will relate to these important memory milestones in our lives.

Milestones need to be moments in our life where we meet with God. Moses on Mount Sinai came down in a sense with major milestones markers. When the nation of Israel crossed over the Jordan River they piled up 12 milestones as a remembrance. Each of us should have notable events in our life where we look back and say that was a milestone moment. Make sure you use the smart phone you have to take some memorable pictures. Take a photo of each graduate and send it to their parents and congratulate them for a life well lived so far. Thankfully these photos will be reviewed again and again with fond memories. Years from now these photos of great markers in our lives encourage us and loved ones to keeping moving forward. By the way a little green stuff in the card goes a long way. Congratulations graduates on this great milestone moment!