I have had this phrase on
my mind these last few days…’Every story needs a final word’. '
Wouldn’t that be perfect? A final word would finish off the story, the
story that you are in right now, the story that happened to you last week, last
year, the story that hasn’t finished well.
If only there was a last word, a final word that made the ending better,
well, at least better understood.
A final word gives clarity;
a final word puts an end to the story. I
have a story that I need an ending to, a final word that will make me see the
purpose, the reason the story happened in the first place. I need the final
word. Everyone has a story, sometimes we
think that our story is the saddest, the hardest…the most difficult to have
even survived. Sometimes our story is the best, the sweetest... more wonderful
than anything possible happening to anyone else. These
stories are happening all around us, to our people and other people on the edges. But the only thing that makes their story the
most difficult or more wonderful is the final word. The finish.
What happened next…how did it end?
Is it even over?
John dying was a final
word. His life, touched with amazing
grace. I can’t imagine being at peace
with his death if I didn’t understand this final word at the end of his story.
Not all stories end with
understanding, we find ourselves struggling to find clarity, to hear the final
word, the word that will end what we are going through right now…sometimes we
wait 36 years, sometimes we won’t hear the word at all… the never ending story. What do we do with the never ending story?
We give it to God; it is
the only thing we can do…rest in Him, wait on Him, hope in Him; the peace that
surpasses all understanding.
Clarity. My friend calls it a
higher power, I call it the Grace of God... the final word to every story.
I love that.
