“I believe it was the first, last and only time all three networks interrupted regular programming to cover a first lady’s speech live,” Edward McNally, a speechwriter in the Bush White House, recalled Tuesday, hours after Bush’s passing.  “It was an unusual national moment, to say the least.”

One thing that made it unusual was that first lady Bush was accompanied by Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev’s wife, Raisa, who also spoke at the commencement.

As Bush addressed the graduating class, she said, “I hope that many of you will consider making three very special choices.”

“The first is to believe in something larger than yourself … to get involved in some of the big ideas of our time.”  Bush spoke of how she had chosen to promote literacy because “if more people could read, write and comprehend, we would be that much closer to solving so many of the problems that plague our nation and our society.”

Bush encouraged the graduates to make a second choice in their lives: “Find the joy in life.”  Bush shared one of the reasons that she chose to marry a young Navy Pilot by the name of George H.W. Bush: “he made me laugh.”

“The third choice that must not be missed,” Bush continued, “is to cherish your human connections: your relationships with family and friends.”  Bush pressed the point adding, “As important as your obligations as a doctor, lawyer or business leader will be, you are a human being first and those human connections — with spouses, with children, with friends — are the most important investments you will ever make.  At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend or a parent.”

To these three great points, I would like to respectfully add one more: At the end of your life, the most important connection will be the one with your Heavenly Father.

The most important “connection” that we need to have is with the Heavenly Father through His Son, Jesus.  Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

God will save and give eternal life to those who “connect” with His Son by placing their faith and trust in Him (Acts 16:30-31), turning from sin in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confessing Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), and being baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  God will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).

Won’t YOU?