When I was younger, I would sometimes read the ending of a book first to make sure it ended well before I spent too much time reading it.
I may or may not still do that on occasion.
I tell myself that the only reason I cheat books when reading them is because there is a God-like characteristic in me that desires to see redemption written into everything.
Ha.
ANYWAY. Some of my favorite stories don’t necessarily have happy endings, but they have redemptive endings. And I LOVE redemptive endings.
I have been re-learning, that I know hardly anything about barely nothing. Which is humbling. (And a lesson I wish I learned-for-keeps the first 600 times the Lord tried to teach it too me.)
It may not be Godly of me to skip to the end of every book I read, but it is God-like for redemption to be written into every story.
There are stories in my life right now, that seem to have ended without any redeeming quality. There are novels occurring in the story of my life that seem as though they are going to end in what a friend would call “death, doom and destruction.” The are chapters of my story that ended on a sad note and I can not seem to trace the redemptive hand.
There have been times when, in my pride and arrogance, I have wanted to explain to God that I would have written the story differently if I were in His shoes. I would have had a happier ending, I would have made the redemption more obvious – there would have been a skywriter or at least a hand writing on the wall.
Deep breath – in the midst of my arrogance, here is what I know to be true: God writes better stories than I do. Ke knows better endings. He writes in more redemption that I could ever dream possible. He sees story lines my earthly eyes miss. His redemption extends beyond my time lines – they extend across generations and over hundreds of years.
His timing is not my timing, His story line is not my story line, BUT His redemption far exceeds my wildest imagination.
If you’re struggling to trace the redemptive hand, if you’re at the end of a chapter and you’re wondering where the silver lining is – remember, God writes redemption into every story.
And He writes the best stories.
Love,
katie
