for those times when you don’t see a happy ending to your story

For years, I have kept a little slip of paper tucked between the pages of my Bible. It says: “Keep reading. It’s not the end of the book.”

I found that piece of paper again the other day, somewhere in Isaiah, and it brought me a great measure of needed peace.

Because there’s so much turmoil right now, almost everywhere I look.

The world has been filled with so much ugly, so much sad, so much pain.

We’re gripped by the threat of terror, by the horrific images of people being driven from their lands, by gun-wielding people who have no regard for life in schools and on campuses.

And people all around us are struggling, grieving, aching. Dying.

But I held that slim scrap of paper between my fingers — a reminder that we are mid-story. 

There really is a Happily Ever After. 

And that Happily Ever After was most assuredly secured with three nails, two beams, and one astonishing Son of God who loves us so much.

The story isn’t over. Not your story. Not the story of your wandering child. Or your cancer-weary mama. Or this busted-up world. Or the story of God. That story? His story? Stretches out into forever.

And there are things we cannot yet see.

We’re moving toward a grand and glorious finale. God is reconciling everything to Himself. And He is not an absentee landlord of Earth. He is here. And He sees.

I read these words in Ephesians this week: “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone” {Ephesians 1:11-12, The Message}.

He’s working it out. Even if it isn’t making any sense right now. He. Is. Working. It. Out. In everything and everyone.

One of the greatest joys of being a Christ follower, is reminding each other that for all the brokenness we’re living under, a remedy exists. The Happy Ending is coming. We’ve got to remind each other that the story isn’t over:

“It’s not the end of the Book.”