Epilogues

Like most people, I love a good story… Lately, I have been listening to a lot of historical novels.  I can’t help but get drawn into the characters, living as if along-side them through whatever harrowing tale is being spun.  A really good plot, the talent of a good narration, and I’m hooked to the point I hate knowing the story must come to an end.  But of course, they always do.

Kind of like life.  We have just so much time to live it well.  To say and do the things we need to.  To fix what’s broken.  To forgive and be forgiven. To make our mark and have it matter that we lived at all. 

I can’t help but think of my own life story.  If there is a prologue, it would be in the women of my family who came before me, who blazed a trail of sorts by their grace, their commitment to doing what was right, the way they loved each other, and were steadfast and determined in the face of difficult times.  They taught me and molded me by their example; their faith is stamped in my DNA.  To me, they are everything I aspire to be.

The middle parts of my story, would be about the people I have loved, the children I bore and raised, my disappointments and redemptions, the hopes and dreams that we all know and yearn to have said of us – that we made a difference, we did our best, that our endurance and kindnesses hopefully outnumbered the times we fell short.   I pray that my kids will say someday of me that I have walked my talk.

I am standing in a time where things are coming full circle.  My first baby, is about to have her first baby.  And though I can barely anticipate how this will change my life as a first time Gigi, I surely know very well how it will change hers.  Oh, the love… There are simply no other words.  This is when we get to see the fruit of our work come back to us, and the branches of our family grow and flourish with new expectation. 

The thing that I know about God, is that He is the Author of Life.  Like a good novel, there are bound to be conflicts, a hero or heroine, a villain or two, some good times and bad, and a yearning that draws us through to keep us turning the pages and believing that the ending will be good.   There are unexpected things that happen along the way, for sure.  But if we keep on trusting Him, He will guide us and give us the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other.   

I’ve lived long enough now to understand that the same things beat all our hearts. We want to be loved.  We want our faith in each other and in God to not be let down or discouraged.  We want to know that miracles happen and that Good will always triumph over evil.   We want to witness His hand moving in our situations, no matter how simple or complex they are.  And we want to pass this on to those we love. 

God wants us to trust Him for just these very things.

If you’ve ever read a good story that has an epilogue, it tells you what happens to the characters down the road from where the story seems to end.  It ties it all up, and keeps you thinking about the lives and parallels we all draw to our own reality.  Sometimes, these are surprising or just a natural conclusion to what we would like to believe would happen.

For me, living in faith is like writing our own epilogue.  We walk in the hope and knowledge that God has us and is working all things together for our good.  No matter what it looks like in the present, we will find strength and grace and peace.  We can trust that our stories will go on for eternity.

When we live solely for ourselves, we trade our happy endings for the predictable, shallow, and empty existence that has us never reaching our full purpose:  to give and receive love well.   We dwell instead in a life of unfulfilled expectations and regrets.  And when the full-circle moments come, we fail to realize that faith is the glue that holds us together when the world wants to pull us apart.  

That’s when we have to surrender to Him and be made whole. 

I pray that every day you recognize God’s faithfulness, His love and Mercy, and the blessings He has given you.  I pray that though times may be difficult, you can sense Him holding you up and working in your circumstances.  Your story is still being written… And it is beautiful.

Every little thing we do, matters.  Everything.  Our lives are made up of moments, little and big.  Make them count.

You are loved.