Back to School 
Pause
“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born till the moment you die, is a process of learning.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti
I just read about a 90-year-old Kenyan woman who is proof that education has no age limit. Priscilla, a midwife, is going to primary school for the first time so she can learn to read and write. Because she grew up in an occupied country and lived through Kenya’s struggle for independence, she never received an education. She wears a school uniform and sits on the front row of her class. Priscilla says, “Education is your wealth.”
Listen
After three days they found him in the temple. He was sitting among the teachers, listening to them and putting questions to them. Everyone who heard him was amazed by his understanding and his answers.
Luke 2:46-47
Think
Today’s reading is the one story the Bible tells of Jesus growing up. He is 12 years old and has just gone missing! For three days! Can you imagine what your parents would do if you disappeared for three days? And when they find you, you are at church talking to the pastors. Really?! You ran away and went to CHURCH?!
But there is Jesus, sitting with teachers, asking questions and learning from them. God, the giver of life, is running around in a middle school body. He is not paying one bit of attention to the fact that his parents have left town; he is so hungry for knowledge, he is searching for opportunities to learn.
What if we approached our education not as something to suffer through but as an opportunity to open our minds and learn about this amazing world we inhabit? As a time to question and wonder? As a time to learn from those who know more than we do?
This school year, let’s be THAT kind of student!
Ann Whitfield Carter
Pray
God, help me see school as an opportunity to expand not only my mind but my heart and my world, too. Open up my eyes to the wonders and power of knowledge. Just like Jesus, make me hungry to learn from you and from the many teachers you place in my life. And may I never grow tired of learning new things. Amen.
Go
Go out into your day to be a learner
Open your eyes and your ears
Open your mind and your heart
Open your hands
To God’s amazing world
To God’s amazing people
Be surprised by what you discover
And never stop learning
