13

Small and big hands rested on the shoulders of Graham and Davey as prayers were said over them. A season of blessing and commissioning and interceding enveloped them.

Graham and Davey are our second and third oldest grandchildren. Both of them crossed into their teenage years before the close of 2022… and so we planned a weekend. A retreat. A gathering of the males in our family, and the next day, the females.

On Friday night and Saturday morning, the men wrapped their arms around Graham. On Saturday and Sunday, the ladies did the same around Davey.

13.  Remember it? For some of us, that’s a longer putt than others. But yes, I remember.

Only a few days before our getaway, Jake Bland, the President of Youth For Christ USA, had asked a group of YFC leaders… “How many of you would rather be a teenager today, than when they were teenagers?”

The room fell silent. Then somber.

And yet, that’s the focus of our YFC mission. Young people. 11 to 19 years old. The center of our missional target, and thankfully, on the heart of God.

Graham and Davey… and tens of millions of other young people in the United States.

In 1968 when I broached the teenage shores, the world was broken and sinful and dangerous. Racial hatred surged. Drug availability and addiction spiked. Rock and roll became the anthem, and political polarization boiled over into assassination.

And yet… I didn’t raise my hand. I wouldn’t trade my teenage years with Graham and Davey. Would you?

Now, sitting in front of me, in front of us, our very own teenagers. Hand crafted by God. Image bearers. Travelers in time for this time. For now. Young and pliable. Anointed and commissioned. Without a vote on when they would arrive, yet expected. Designed. Created. By God.

God was not on vacation when these two were born in 2009. And He is not on vacation now as they enter this significant chapter of life.

We need these two. We need this generation, and not just to fund Social Security for our children… but for the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus. We need them. And millions like them who are less prone than my generation to sacrifice the message of the Gospel on the altar of comfort and convenience and accumulation. We need them… to press through the messed-up messages of identity that persist in our culture, and stand boldly for The Nazarene. For Jesus. For the King of kings.

We need them.

And that’s why we prayed… for power and protection. For perseverance and presence. For a voice to proclaim and the courage to persist.

We need them.

To stand tall. To stand firm. To stand up.

To be a beacon in the fog. A light in the darkness. A laser on the truth.

Graham. Davey. And millions more.

Showing us the way… not to faster Internet speeds, but the foot of the cross.

And so we prayed…

And yes, God moved, and moves. Right now. Right here. For the King. For His Kingdom. Through two 13-year-olds in Colorado. Through a new generation that will show us the Way. The Truth. The Life.