Release Date: June 17th, 2026Summer is coming!
- by Jane Kuepfer
Remember the feeling of the last week of school before summer holidays? With so much behind you, there is just a little bit more, before summertime opens up to months of freedom.
What filled those last days of the school year? Perhaps there was a field day to run off energy and get bodies moving after months of desk-sitting. Maybe you recall students and teachers working together to help organize and clean the classroom. Or a class trip to somewhere special (I remember planting trees around the school lot, and walking across the road together to make rubbings of the headstones in the old rural cemetery). In older grades there may even have been an overnight trip, complete with shenanigans, as well as learning opportunities. Generations younger than me might remember getting to watch a movie together with classmates and special treats. And, of course, there were final assemblies, graduation ceremonies with celebrations and awards, occasions to mark achievements, and to say goodbye to the year that is finished.
Last days are special days.
When that time comes, when we’ve finished everything required of us and get on the bus for the ride home to freedom, what mix of feelings will you carry?
Endings come with a mix of emotions – perhaps a bit of sadness leaving behind familiar routines and relationships, but also a savouring of good times, a sense of accomplishment, and anticipation for what is ahead.
Those end of school feelings revisit us as life goes on – as we wrap up each of our many and various chapters of life and prepare to step into what is next: leaving our family home, completing vocational training or academic studies, finishing work contracts, moving house, releasing children from each stage of growing up, retirement, letting go of long-held responsibilities or routines…
Ultimately, we step from this lifetime we have lived into eternity with God. When that time comes, when we’ve finished everything required of us and get on the bus for the ride home to freedom, what mix of feelings will you carry?
As we invest our lives in God’s work, and even as we come to the end of our time of actively investing, the greater story, a legacy of ongoing faithfulness as the peoplehood of God, continues.
As you anticipate endings (whatever chapter you are near to finishing) what do you hope fills your days?
As we complete each chapter it is good to be aware that each chapter is part of a greater story, the lifestory we have been given and called to live fully, and our individual stories are part of a much more expansive narrative, a story of faithful living that is wide and deep and long. As we invest our lives in God’s work, and even as we come to the end of our time of actively investing, the greater story, a legacy of ongoing faithfulness as the peoplehood of God, continues.
May these days you now find yourself in be days of intention, filled with meaningful work and play, time with family, friends, and neighbours, the satisfaction of accomplishment, gratitude for what has been, and anticipation for what’s next.
21 “Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!” Matthew 25:21 CEV
- Jane Kuepfer is the Schlegel Specialist in Spirituality and Aging at the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging and Conrad Grebel University College and an ordained Minister with MCEC