Bifocals

Monday, October 23, 2006

By Jim Van Wingerden

This past weekend was a very busy time at Calvin College.  In addition to this being Family Weekend, Calvin’s Parent Council, our 30+ member parent advisory board, conducted its October meetings on campus, providing for a busy week and weekend in the parent relations office.

The Parent Council gathered for their first meeting on Thursday night.  There was a time for the parent-members to introduce themselves.  The parents shared how their students came to choose Calvin and many reflected on what they have come to appreciate about their sons’ and daughters’ experiences at Calvin.

I wished I had recorded all the wonderful stories I heard at this session.  We listened to story after story of the many ways that these students and their families have been positively affected by their experiences at Calvin College.

About two-thirds of the way through the session one of the parents commented, “You know, I’ve heard a lot of stories tonight but they all share one thing in common.  They are all evidence of God’s faithfulness.” This parent went on to talk about the life-changing imprint that Calvin College has made on her children, on her and her husband, and also the two generations of her family that preceded her Calvin experience. 

I love to think and talk about the Calvin experience in that way—as strong evidence of God’s faithfulness!  Evidenced in the way that God demonstrates his faithfulness to your sons and daughters through their experiences here and in their life beyond Calvin, but also evidenced in the thousands of ways that Calvin students help show God’s faithfulness to the world through their lives of Christian vocation.

This past weekend was also the setting for two days of meetings of the Calvin Alumni Association board, a variety of concerts and shows, a lecture by Philip Yancey, and class reunions for those who graduated from Calvin in 1976 and 1981.

I’m thankful to say that I graduated from Calvin College in 1976 and attended my 30th reunion this past weekend.  It was good to reconnect with classmates I hadn’t seen in many years and to enjoy the opportunities that a college reunion provides.

The Master of Ceremonies* of the reunion program began the evening by looking out over a decidedly graying crowd of 50-something-baby-boomers and remarking, “I don’t recall so many of us wearing bifocals 30 years ago.” After the ensuing laughter he went on to observe, “You know, bifocals really aren’t so bad.  They can serve as a reminder of God’s faithfulness, helping us to not only look backwards, as we do at a reunion, but also to look forward, as we share how God has been at work through our lives these past 30 years.”

I like those thoughts and that image—the dual purpose of bifocals.  As evidence of God’s faithfulness.  I pray that we as parents gain the dual vision that bifocals can afford—the ability to see two images of our students.  The ability to see them up close, as they are today with all of today’s joys and challenges, but also the vision to see them through the lense of God’s faithfulness, becoming the Christian women and men that God intends them to be.

* (I want to share that our reunion MC, Dr. Bob Keeley, did triple-duty that evening, serving as not only our reunion MC but also as member of BOTH bands that provided entertainment that evening—The Lazy Blue Tunas and the 30th reunion of Blue Sky, a popular Calvin band from the 70s.  Bob Keeley’s “day job” is teaching your daughters and sons as the chair of Calvin’s Education Department).

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