The title of this post refers back to The Black Hole post last week right before our final exams began. I’m happy to announce that we have emerged from the other side with our molecular structures intact. But man, I never want to have infinite mass ever again….you wouldn’t believe the headache!

So for us, Christmas officially began at 11 a.m. this morning with the completion of our Systematic Theology exam. The black hole began one week ago today, and it feels so good to be on the other side of 14 hours of exams, including both Greek and Hebrew and a New Testament Intro exam for which the prof basically said, “know everything I ever said.”

This semester has definitely been the hardest intellectual work we’ve ever done, but now that it’s over we feel nothing but gratitude. It will be some time before we know our grades, but that almost doesn’t matter. We feel like we did well on the exams, and more importantly, we know that we have learned so very much…and we love what we’ve learned.

Right before the ST exam this morning (while I was sweating trying to remember “is the tauta of Matthew 11 the panta, or was it that the panta was tha tauta?”) my friend Drew crouched by my desk and whispered, “I was just sitting in my car, a cup of ‘bucks in my hand, Caedmon’s Share the Well playing on the CD changer, and Dr. Gaffin’s incredible notes in my lap. Life is sweet!!” My sentiments exactly.

As I read through my Intro to Systematic Theology notes, I realized what a privilege it had been to sit under the teaching of such a beautiful man of God as Richard Gaffin. He’s one of the last of the profs here who learned his stuff under the Westminster Olympic pantheon of Van Till and Murray and Stonehouse. To watch him exegete 1 Corinthians 2 or Hebrews 1 from the Greek is like getting to watch a master luthier build a custom guitar. I know I will often come back to the notes from this class in the years ahead. Certainly my love and respect for the Word of God has been raised to new levels.

And similar things could be said about all our teachers here. Not only are they incredibly knowledgable in their fields, but to a man they are passionate lovers of God who care deeply that their students get what they are teaching not just in their heads, but also in their hearts.

So thank you, Father God, for allowing us to be in this place. May you help us to use what you teach us here to spread the glory of your Name whereever you take us.

Now we’re packing up and tomorrow we hit the road for some family time. We’ll be with a couple of Karyn’s sisters up in New York state this weekend (snow!!) and then spend next week at a vacation home in the Poconos with our two daughters, their husbands, and all four grandchildren.

Postscript: The LSW once again displayed what a rock of self-control she is as she bought the ROTK:EE DVD on the day it came out but did not open it until this afternoon when all the exams were done.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 16th, 2004 at 11:16 pm and is filed under It`s All About Me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.