After a little time away, some thoughts on confirmation.
In yesterday’s worship, we had the service to confirm the twenty-two young men and women in this year’s class. Each came forward to have their confirmation verse read, at which time a blessing was given and a prayer for them was offered. During this their families, mentors, and friends stood in the congregation.
It is a culmination in a sense, but only “one step among many” in another. It is the culmination of their rudimentary education concerning the new life given them at their baptism. It’s that descriptor, rudimentary, which makes this confirmation but one step on their life’s journey to know better their Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. There is ever so much more to learn (and love!) about God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I was reminded of an incident when I was working over the summer during high school. I was working for Meyer Building Company (whose unofficial motto was something like “Rome wasn’t built in a day. But Meyer Building Company wasn’t around then!”). Our lunch time habit was to knock off work at noon and listen to Paul Harvey for fifteen minutes while we ate. For the next fifteen minutes we would talk, though you were welcome to use that time for brief nap.
One day the four older men, each a member of the congregation where my father was pastor and my mother was the musician, talked about their confirmation verses. They quoted them and talked about what they meant. When it came to me, the pastor’s kid, I didn’t know what mine had been. That made me do some research that very night!
I have since committed my verse to memory and found it a very encouraging bit of scripture. If you cannot remember yours, spend some time looking it up. If it was given to you by the congregation, I’m sure it was given with some serious intent to be a blessing for you for the rest of your life. In some of the congregations I’ve served as pastor we have used the confirmation verse in the funeral service, as well.
“My sheep hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:27. That’s certainly one worth knowing and cherishing.