My husband and I battled infertility for years and years. We have no living child to show for our struggle. No successful adoption and very few redemptive reasons (so far) for why God asked us to walk this road of longsuffering and loss. We remain childless and that can be deeply unsettling for some people. Their unease is palpable.
Often, when I tell someone that I cannot have children, they begin telling me stories about friends of friends who miraculously got pregnant against all odds. They tell me about adoption and healing prayer and new medications that work wonders. As they talk, I often wonder to myself if perhaps they share these stories as a means of lessening their own anxiety in the face of something that makes them uncomfortable.
I get it. Happy endings are the standard that everything is measured against. Happy endings feel like tangible evidence that God is good.
But what do we do when the happy ending hasn’t come yet? Even more, what do we do when the happy ending never comes? When the cancer is terminal, the divorce is final or the child actually dies? What then?
An Eternal Perspective
I can’t help but wonder if instead of looking at stories of someone else’s happy ending, we should be to looking at the ultimate Happy Ending. As Christians, we all get a happy ending, even if it doesn’t come in this life. If we fix our eyes on things working out for us on this earth, we can easily miss the beauty that is found in the Holy Epilogue: a joyful, glorious eternity spent with God.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people,
and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain,
for the old order of things has passed away.”He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making
everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”He said to me:
“It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without
cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and
they will be my children.
Revelation 21: 3-7
Did you catch that little piece in the middle? The old order will pass away, everything will be made new. Everything. Our pain will be erased. Our stories will find their happy endings in the Happy Ending.
An eternal perspective based on Jesus Christ is the only way those of us without happy endings here on earth will ever make it through without falling into total despair. We should think deeply about the new heavens and the new earth (Is 65:17). We can actively seek out Scripture and sermons about the Kingdom that is to come. Giving ourselves permission to dream about what eternity with Christ will be like is a healthy way to anticipate the coming Kingdom.
I don’t want to hang my hope on circumstances possibly working out in this world and I really don’t want to cling to the hope of someone else’s story. Rather, I want to secure my hope to something that is actually promised to me: abiding with Jesus in a land that is so good I cannot even fathom it.
The New Heavens and New Earth
Endings don’t get any better than the one we are promised in the Bible. When Jesus makes all things new, we will dwell in a land that is better than Eden. Here are just a few of the things we will see and receive in the Kingdom that is to come:
- Rivers, fruit, trees, perpetual light and double portions
- Rewards, jewels, crowns of righteousness
- The New Jerusalem, open gates and wealth of the nations
- Springs of life, mountains, feasts and fruitful labor
- Joy, delight, cleanliness, glory, peace and dwelling with God
- Streets made of gold so pure it looks like glass, houses and vineyards
- Immeasurable riches and grace and unity of all people
- Righteousness, inheritance and angels
- A complete absence of pain, sin, death, heartbreak, disordered living and fear
(see Daniel 12:13, Isaiah 60, Isaiah 65:17-25, Matthew 16:27, 2 Tim 4:8, Ephesians 2:7, 1Peter 1:4, 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 20:9, 21: 6, 10, 12, 18,23 22:1-5)
What’s better, our time in the new heavens and new earth will never end. It will simply get better as the days go on and we live and reign with Christ. As we step into Kingdom that is to come, we will see that this happy ending is just the beginning.
In Christ, the best is yet to come.
