Too Close to the Edge

Warning: Nostalgic Mom of High School Graduate Ahead

“Tom, stay away from the edge.”

“Tom, you’re closing in on danger over there.”

“Tom, you’re raising your mom’s heart rate to a dangerous level.”

He has always been the one to test the limits. One walk with him at Wind Canyon in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park was one walk too many! Even at 15 years old, I had to tell him to stop going up (not down) the hotel waterslide because he was creating a following with the impressionable littles in the pool.

It’s a week of double graduations for this dare devil. Tomorrow is his graduation from high school and five days later his graduation from basic training and AIT for the Army, continuing with his service for the National Guard.

Stepping out to the edge and raising his mom’s heart rate is not unfamiliar territory. I’ve had lots of practice watching and turning away – a mom can only take so much, after all!

Graduation is meant to be one careful and well-supported step over the edge, a release and catch situation. The God who walked with God’s people through the wilderness will be there this time, too, the soft landing of grace catching him as he finds and sometimes fumbles his way to the other side.

Photo by Aravind Kumar on Unsplash