The End of the Story

Have you ever read the end of a book first? Perhaps you started out at the right place (like the beginning), but as you progressed farther into the story, it appeared that the hero might not escape alive, or that the heroine might be tricked into marrying the slick bad guy. You couldn’t handle the suspense, so you hurriedly flipped to the back of the book and read the last few pages.

I was reading a novel recently and did the same thing…and for the entirety of the book (all 1,386 pages of it) I was annoyed because I knew one of my favorite characters was going to die. It wasn’t a main character, but it was a character I could relate to. Silly authors.

However, I think there’s something in everyone that wants to know the end of the story right away. We want to know that in the end, it’s going to work out, that everything is going to be okay. Or should the end be tragic, we need time to prepare for the inevitable or we cling to a desperate hope that there is a sequel where it somehow turns out all right.

With books (and movies), we can read the last chapter first, watch the last scene first, but not so with life. Even the next moment could be fraught with peril, or filled with overwhelming joy. And even though most “next moments” are just ordinary, life changes; time moves on.

Yet, we can have hope because no matter what matters, this life is only the beginning of our story. Sometimes the prince kills the dragon and lives happily ever after with Sleeping Beauty, but sometimes, Cinderella spends her entire life alone, sweeping up the ashes. Either way, these scenes are just the beginning of the story.

Here’s a portion of my favorite parts from the end of The Book where the King talks about “ever after”:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new ” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
–Revelation 21:3-6

And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed.
–Revelation 21:23-26

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
–Revelation 22:1-2

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come ” And let the one who hears say, “Come ” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.
–Revelation 22:17

–Ashley High is a PR Intern at Crossover Graphics (www.crossovergraphics.com)

(All Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible)

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