Can I admit something to you guys? I am one of those people who skip to the end of the book to see what happens in the end. I know it’s cheating, and I try not to do it, but sometimes I just want to know if the book is worth my time or not (basically, if it ends the way I want it to end).

 

If I’m honest, oftentimes I’d like to do this with my own life, too. Will my story turn out how I want it to? Will this trial eventually end? Will my dreams come to pass?

 

When we read through the Bible, sometimes we can flippantly think that people’s hardships were different than our own because we know the end of their story. The woman with the issue of blood was healed, but do we sit with the fact that she was unclean and unwelcome for twelve whole years? Joseph was restored to his brothers and oversaw the food sector of a great nation —after he suffered injustice for many years. Ruth found her godly husband and produced the heir that would eventually lead to Jesus—after she was widowed and had to leave all that she had known for a strange new land.

 

Each of these people, and more, suffered and struggled in the middle of their stories. Yet, we can see it was all worth it because we know the ending. The amazing thing is that we, too, can be assured of our ‘ending’. We are promised that one day Jesus will return again and “wipe every tear from [our] eyes” because “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4 NIV). So our end is not an end at all, but a new beginning as a chosen people with our Everlasting Father in our forever home!

 

So, as we wait for that new beginning, let us “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV). And let us draw closer to our Saviour and Friend, who will run with us until that day comes.