Paul, writing to ordinary believers, dignifies ordinary labour: whatever you do, work from the heart, as for the Lord and not for people. Education can feel like a race of comparisons, a pile of deadlines, a fog of self-doubt. Scripture makes it something else: a field in which faithfulness can grow, and in which hidden work is seen.

As heirs of the King, we live with an inheritance that is gift; as subjects, we learn to serve with our hands and minds. So we pray for teenagers choosing subjects, apprentices learning a craft, postgraduates wrestling with complexity, and staff whose work is rarely noticed. And we refuse to imagine anyone as disposable. The struggling student is our brother; the weary lecturer is our sister; the overlooked cleaner in a corridor is kin. Lord, teach us to see vocation through communion: one table, many callings, all under your kindly rule, and no labour wasted in your sight.