More Than Smiling Faces

As most institutions do, each year we take a picture of the graduating class.  I confess this moment often goes by unnoticed.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate our students' accomplishments, in fact, quite the contrary.  Rather, the entire week of commencement is often such a blur that there is little to no time to pause and reflect.  Such was the case this year.  The picture was taken and within mere minutes everyone was on to the next thing.

Now, two weeks after commencement, I received a copy of the class picture in my email.  When I opened the attachment, the smiling faces immediately struck me.  While the diversity in race, gender, and age represented in this photograph is certainly noteworthy, there is something else that goes unseen.  Behind these smiling faces are exactly what Garrett-Evangelical’s tagline says, bold leaders for the Church, the academy, and world.  There are elders, deacons, Christian educators, worship leaders, scholars, military and hospital chaplains, counselors, advocates, and more in this picture.  Each smiling face has a story and each smiling face has been charged to make a difference, and to do it boldly. 

There’s something else that goes unseen in this photograph.  The diversity in biblical interpretation, theological and ethical perspectives, denominations, and the praxis of ministry represented by each of these faces is wide.  Please understand, when I say wide I don’t mean Chicago River wide; I’m talking Lake Michigan wide!  Yet, somehow, through all of these differences they have remained in community with one another.  For me, they truly serve as a living model of “one body in Christ.”

Though difficult as it may be to believe, May 2013 will be here before we know it and there will be new smiling faces standing on those steps. I am certain that, yet again, I will be too busy to really take stock of the faces staring into the camera lens at that moment.  However, I know that when I receive the copy of the class picture, my heart will, as John Wesley said, “be strangely warmed,” as I look upon the faces of another class of amazing and diverse students who are saying goodbye to Garrett-Evangelical and stepping out as bold leaders into the Church, the academy, and the world.

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Shane Nichols is the Manager of Communications and Event Planning at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.