Transcript:
Greetings, beloved in Christ. It is back-to-school time. All over our great state of Colorado, all over our country, kids are heading back to school. And whether it’s someone’s first day of first grade, or whether it is, like it is for my twins, the first day of their senior year, this time is filled with excitement and energy and some anxiety. Back in the ’90s, there was a movie called Legends of the Fall, and in that movie was one of my favorite movie quotes of all time.
Colonel Ludlow, played by Anthony Hopkins, was busy educating his field hand’s daughter, when his field hand asked, “What is my half-Indian daughter going to do with all this education?”
Colonel Ludlow, answers without missing a beat, “Why live a richer and fuller life, of course.”
Those words have stuck with me all this time because they encapsulate what I believe the point of education is. It is to open our minds, thereby opening our hearts to the mystery of the world around us. Whether that mystery is in people who are different from us, whether that mystery is about the creation we inhabit, whether that mystery is about the universe and the divine education, it is about opening our hearts and minds, giving us the gift of wonder. Our Creator endowed us with intellect and curiosity that we might better understand the mystery that is this life, and education opens doors for us to do just that. It’s not just about learning a particular skill or information. It’s about engaging. Engaging this beautiful world. Engaging this one life that we have been given. Engaging the very mystery of our reality that we might engage more deeply the mystery that is the God that we have known in Jesus Christ.
And so I am asking your prayers for students, for administrators, for teachers, as they all enter this back to school time, that they may be blessed with the joy of the richer and fuller life that God wants for us all. Blessings.