How many pictures are on your phone?
I did a search: the average person has 630 pictures and 24 videos.
My sister has over a 1,000 pictures on her phone. When she wants to show me one, she has to swipe through hundreds to show that me that one picture.
I’m old school. I’ve tossed the pictures from back in the day that came from cameras that used film in a big plastic tub.
I’ve been meaning to put those pictures in albums in chronological order to show my sister how it’s done. But, as much as I’m a hyper-organizer, I’ll probably never get around to it.
Today, you will be taking pictures, for these moments are making up a big day.
To show others, you will be swiping through your phone to show the pictures that you took this day.
You will be sharing how proud you are.
You should be proud. Your child made it through this part of life and moving on to the next part.
Kind of bittersweet, isn’t it?
Your child is not a kid any longer. As you swipe through pictures, you see a lot of other pictures. Birthday parties, a day at the beach, family vacations.
When I’m looking through my tub of pictures, I wonder, “Where did those moments go?”
Any life has so many moments of so many things. Good moments and not so good ones, maybe even some bad ones.
But, we have to say this about all the various moments, whatever that they may be, each and every one of them make up a life.
We all want a good life.
To have a good life, we need to be making the most of all our moments.
But, we have said that our moments can pass by so quickly, and we really never know what is happening from one moment to the next.
In a world that can be chaotic, and in lives that can be hard, we want our moments with whatever is in them to still add up to a good life.
We take a lot of pictures here at St Philip because we want to capture all the awesome things we do here.
At the end of worship, you will be seeing a slide show of some of those awesome things.
They will show that overall we had a good year.
In a nutshell, we know that we are doing awesome things here at St Philip because what we do here comes from faith that we know from God’s Word.
Here is just one verse of Scripture from Phillipians chapter four: “I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.]”
We have four children, Jessica, Olivia, Frankie, and Benito, who are at a significant point of their growth.
They are moving along.
Not really children any longer but young adults.
Granted, you are going into this world of many challenges and some testing of who you are.
Without me telling you, I think you are old enough and have found out that life can have some hard moments.
As I understand, you can go to Walgreens and get pictures on your phone printed out.
Print out some of the pictures at times at Walgreens and get one of those big plastic tubs you can get at Walmart or Target.
Put those pictures in the tub and look at them from time to time. See how your life is going.
Again, I’m old school, so I don’t swipe. I think there’s something about digging through, finding, and holding an actual picture. Somehow it makes more of an impression on us.
With the picture in your hands, you will see moments of all kinds from good, to not so good, and to maybe even bad.
We all take a bad picture at times.
In all of those moments of whatever they are, I can boldly say that all of them will add up to a good life, for all were done through Christ.
You see Jesus can do only awesome things.
Just this one verse from Phillipians tells a lot about Jesus and how awesome he is.
In each verse of Scripture, God has so much to tell us about His love for us in Christ.
It’s all awesome, and it’s all meant for us to have good lives now in this moment and in the next moment with whatever is in it.
At the end of morning announcements, Mrs. Tennis always said our theme for the year, “Go and be who God has made you to be.”
Jessica, Olivia, Frankie, and Benito, know that God has made you. He has made you to be awesome.
Now, go and keep doing out there as you have been doing here at St Philip, which is awesome.
Always, by faith in Christ, be making the most of all your moments.
And, by faith in Christ, you will see how those moments all add up to a good life.