A Commencement Benediction With Reckless Abandon

BY MALINDA ELIZABETH BERRY ’96

There are so many other places we could be. But we are here.

Here. Where the Anishinaabe people have walked in balance. Here. Where the settlers made a home and named it for the land an ancient Pharoah gave Jacob’s line. Here. Where recreational vehicles drive prosperity. Here. Where a Christian college marches to the beat of a different drummer. Here. Where the leafy maples grow and multiply with reckless abandon.

A benediction is a blessing, So I bless you in the name of the Trinity who has gifted you with intelligence, strength, and endurance. who calls you to share who you are and what you have with others. who is the source of the love, gladness, and wisdom of generations that brought you to this moment, that is embodied by these witnesses.

A benediction is also a ceremonial prayer to wish you well as you leave a place. So this poem is my prayer for you, graduates. You are leaving this place in a profound way today. Others simply take their leave to return again or not. But you, graduates, you are now bound to a community of people who believe that culture is for service. Great and small, our intellects, our talents, our passions, our hopes, our dreams are offered freely in service of an upside-down kingdom: something the size of a seed; something as complex and alive as soil; something that leads from war to wholeness.

We send you graduates, you maple keys, from here to wherever the Wind takes you. When you land in the place just right, may your roots go deep and your branches reach high as you remember this place where the leafy maples clap their hands alive with verdant green praise as God stays the archer’s hand and sets a new bow in the sky; this place where the leafy maples cheer adorned in indescribable reds, yellows, oranges, and purples as we gather around a broken shield. this place where the leafy maples grow and multiply with reckless abandon offering the world gifts that lead from war to wholeness: you.