HAPPY ENDINGS: KNOWING THE END FROM THE BEGINNING

I was reading a novel yesterday. It's got a true crime plot with a serial killer on the loose. The female main character (FMC) has future knowledge of her sister being a victim of the killer and is racing against time and history to save her. 

At one point, I was sure she was going to succeed, at another point, I was sure the FMC rather was going to become the victim.

In lieu of such stressful, unstable thoughts, I did something I never thought I'd do; I paused at chapter 21 and went to read the ending. 

When I got confirmation that the death was unsuccessful and the FMC and MMC (male main character) end up together, I confidently returned to my reading.

If this isn't how many of us approach life then I stand to be corrected. Especially in the midst of difficulty, we have this desire to at least know how it ends. In the tunnel of life, even the most hopeful gets to a point where they need confirmation that there truly is light at the end of it. I speak for myself when I say if my life were a book, I'd flip to the epilogue and read about how I prevailed through all the wahala and is currently living a happy fulfilled life at the end. With that perspective, I'd come back to chapter 28 and laugh through the storm. 

Because of this, anybody who claims to have a tad bit of foreknowledge is revered in our communities. True and false prophets abound, seers at every corner, fortune tellers arising. 

In the tunnel of life, sometimes even the most hopeful gets to a point where they need confirmation that there truly is light at the end of it.

We forget that only God is credited as the One who knows the end from the beginning. He has the entirety of our lives laid before him. It is not the duty of man to know what happens in the future but to trust the God of Providence to work all things for our good. It is His prerogative to reveal and to conceal. When we stress ourselves over the future, we loose sight of how the now plays into the bigger future picture.

“I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’”

Isaiah 46:10 NIV

I didn't trust the author of the novel to not break my heart. Even though her other works have relatively happy endings, I've been around books long enough to know that authors love a good plot twist. My decision to read the ending was because I didn't trust her to not disappoint me.

Maybe, just maybe, could it be that our desire to know how every dilemma in our lives ends is because we do not trust God enough?

Could it be that we do not wholeheartedly believe that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose?

Trusting God to keep His Word is not trusting blindly. It does not mean that life would be smooth sailing. It means that He would be with us in the midst of it all and ultimately this life has a happy ending.

In view of our obvious limitations regarding knowing the future, God has given us enough assurance in the Word that truly everything does end well. 

When all the saints gather on the resurrection morning, when the sum of our lives is only to worship the Lamb upon the throne, when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord, when He wipes away every tear and takes away every pain.

That, my friends, is a happy ending.

“‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.””- Revelation 21:4 NIV