AND THEN

 You all know I am a voracious reader.  Why I even read the labels on containers.  You never know what important piece of information you might pick up just by reading.  The only thing I am NOT fond of reading is instruction manuals.  It seems they are purposefully written to be difficult to understand.  I would bet you money some engineer wrote them---we all know they have a language of their own.

Many times when starting a book there will be a prologue.  A section before the body of the book which sets up the scenario.  For some reason, I often skip over the prologue.  Why?  Perhaps because I am anxious to dive into the meat.  Perhaps I think I will figure out all those details while reading the book.  Perhaps I am lazy.  For whatever the reason, I often skip the prologue.

One thing I NEVER skip in a book (unless it was a total loser book and I stuck with it thinking it would surely have some redeeming moment in the verbiage.)  I ALWAYS read the 

 

The last page of the book finds the mystery solved, true love fulfilled, the mountain climbed, the victim saved, the war won, the hero rewarded, the sick healed, or the dying buried.  The last page of the book draws a conclusion to the tale.  I am seldom satisfied.  I want to know and then what happened?  If there is an epilogue, I am compelled to see the next chapter.  Every story leaves me wondering what comes next.  Thank goodness some authors understand my need to know and give me that glimpse into the ever after.

These thoughts take me to the Book of Job.  Forty Two chapters of woe, hardship, pain, loss, recrimination, questioning, and unbelievable grief.  Job loses it all, his friends blame him, Job questions God, and God answers.  And then in the last eight verses we are given the epilogue.  God restores it all and more.  God fills in the blanks of what happens to Job and his family in those final verses.  Forty one plus chapters of a tale of woe, pain, and sorrow and eight short verses of God's redemption over the years to come.  

As we walk this path, we trek through many a life story.  It seems life is in the body of the story, but is the final blessing in the epilogue?  We often are allowed to see the end of a chapter, but our epilogue will probably be written by someone else.  If we are not there, then it will have to be written by someone else.  The point---it is not over until it is really over.  Do not quit living, do not quit seeking God, and always know the story will have an epilogue.  We never really reach

when we are one with The Father.  There is a glorious infinite epilogue coming.

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again,

 and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."

John 16:22