When the End is the Beginning

It’s snowing again. Our roads are unplowed, and deep ditches hide beneath unstable shoulders. A treacherous blanket of white obscures the edges of our rural highways. Our visual aids for drivers are the occasional signposts stabbing through the berms. These become guide markers that warn drivers to stay “centered.”

As a writer, I use “signposts” to guide me, too. In shaping a narrative, I travel a road known as the “story arc.” Three guide markers in the story arc help me tell a story so that readers have a predictable, comfortable path to follow, chapter by chapter. These three time-honored literary signposts are simply the beginning, middle and end.

I recognize the “story arc” (beginning, middle and end) in several areas of my life as well—in literature (of course), in tasks undertaken, in decisions, and in the scope of my relationship with Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 13:11 (NLT) the Apostle Paul describes components of my story arc — and maybe yours, too:

“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Beginning:

“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child…”

“When I was a child” I was the center of the universe. I knew no better than to be selfish. It came naturally to me, like breathing. All my actions passed through a filter of immaturity.

Middle:

“But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror…”

This describes my middle life to a tee. Everything I thought regarding serving God felt unfinished, incomplete, like “puzzling reflections in a mirror.” As a middle-aged man, I faced encroaching vulnerabilities, and realized that “I” was coming to an end.  

End

“…but then, (when we stand in Christ’s presence), we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

(1 Cor. 13:12) Every believer can anticipate a happy ending.

End is the period of time before death—an interval of introspection and reconnecting with God. Earthly scenes will fade to black at God’s appointed time. Our ignorance will be swallowed up in penetrating Light.

“…then I will know everything completely as God now knows me [and you] completely.”

At the End our way is being replaced by HIS WAY.

At the End our truth will be overpowered by HIS TRUTH.

At the End our life will merge with HIS LIFE.

For a believer, THE END of the story is really our BEGINNING.

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (I Cor. 15:54).