We Don't Know The Ending

I was first introduced to this concept when I studied Esther.  We think of her story as heroic and see God's hand throughout as it all plays out.  However, I had never though about the night that she goes back to her room and has asked for a second dinner with her husband, the king.  What must she be thinking?  What was she questioning God about?  Did she feel hopeless?  We know that while she is back in her room that amazing things are happening and God is most definitely intervening on behalf of her and the other Jewish people of the time.

Bottom line, we love the story because we know the ending.

It got me thinking about other people in the Bible.  What must David been thinking and feeling when he was facing Goliath, when he was crowned king and when his son died?  What about Moses when his world fell apart and he found out he was actually a Hebrew instead of an Egyptian?  What about Naomi when her husband and sons died and she wondered how she would live?  Think about the disciples as they watched or heard about Jesus being crucified-not really believing that it would really happen, that some miracle would be performed and Jesus would be spared, but then he really died and then one day goes by, then two.  In our minds, we skip ahead to the ending because it is so awesome and so amazing that we forget that there were real people who were tormented and thought God had completely abandoned them and that maybe everything they had believed was wrong.

Here's the thing.  We don't know the ending to our life.  We don't know if we are in the part of our life that is right before something amazing happens.  We don't know if our life is going to end up to be something that people will want to read about some day. We don't know how God will work through us to reach others.  We just don't know the ending.  When you know the ending, you can see how everything else has led up to this ending.  It puts all of the pieces together.  We may never get to know our ending or how the pieces played out, but that is where we have to learn from the lives of others to TRUST GOD and put our beginnings, middles and endings in His capable hands.  Why?  Because He already knows the ending.  He knows the beginnings and middles too.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.  Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.  Proverbs 3:5-7