repost from 2012
“Homecoming? Oh, yeah… Is that when they announce the football players’ girlfriends?”
“What? The football players’ girlfriends?” I asked, trying to understand.
“Yea,” said my son. “I remember last year, at the end of the game, they announced the girlfriends’ names. Then the girls came down for pictures.”
Well, that would make sense, now wouldn’t it?
Surely everyone would want to know who the football players’ girlfriends are. The fans would all sit quietly in the stands during, listening for the names of those who have been selected as this year’s new round of lucky girlfriends!
And obviously, everyone will want to see the new girlfriends, so it makes sense for the girls to march out on the field in pretty dresses, and stand next to their football player.
(It’s a football game. Who else would those guys be?)
And then, it’s only right for people to give the girlfriends flowers and congratulate them. They’re the new football players’ girlfriends.
This all makes sense when you’re a little kid who thinks the football players hung the moon.
But as his mom, I had to laugh. I admit that there is a certain notoriety associated with being a football player’s girlfriend; no doubt. But I don’t think it’s an honor that compares with being nominated for Homecoming Queen!
I mean, twenty years from now, if one of the girls on the court is asked to share a bit of trivia about herself, she might say, “I was once on the Homecoming Court.” But I’ll bet she wouldn’t mention that she was once a football player’s girlfriend!
Time and maturity have a way of redefining life’s ‘honors’, don’t they? My son thinks that being a football player’s girlfriend is an obvious honor. But by the time he’s old enough to vote for ‘king and queen’, his perspective will change.
As a high school kid, he will likely have new appreciation for ‘king and queen’ status. He’ll probably vote for the kids that he thinks are most popular, most good looking, most athletic, or have the best personality.
At age 18, is there anything more rewarding than being thought of in these ways? Actually, for Christian, there is.
If you’re a Christian, you’ve been chosen by God to be on His royal ‘Homecoming Court’. On ‘Homecoming Day’, Jesus will come to bring you home to heaven, where there will be a coronation service, naming you ‘Queen’–the Bride of King Jesus.
This is an honor that will last far more than twenty years, and will far overshadow any bragging rights you once had about being well liked or pretty–or even a football player’s girlfriend.
I guess your idea of the highest ‘honor’ depends on who you think hung the moon. If you’re a Christian, you know it’s Jesus.