do you ever feel like you are in the middle of a story, but don’t know where the plot is headed?

i guess that is everyday life, but some moments i feel it more strongly than others.

as a child, i could not stop to put books down at bed time. i was the kid with a flashlight under the covers. (well, more like one of those dorky-but-helpful clip-on book lamps. i think my parents gave them to my in my christmas stocking multiple years in a row because i would burn the bulbs out after hours of use.)

i had to see how the story ended. i couldn’t just stop in the middle and pick it up the next day; my eager heart wanted the resolution of how the boxcar children would get through their newest scrape, or what would happen next in the relationship of elsie and edward. whether it was the mandie books or little house on the prairie or anne of green gables or huckleberry finn, i could not put a book down until i finished it.

i claim my ability to speed read assignments as an english major was originally formed during my elementary school years  when i couldn’t sleep without knowing how the story would turn out in the end. and – more importantly – how it would get to that ending.

here’s a gem of what my life was like at that age. notice my finger carefully keeping my spot.

it’s too bad, in life, i can’t just stay up all night to figure out what happens next in the story. i have to actually live it.

even though i know it is going to be alright in the end – just like my childhood novels – i want to know how we get to being alright. does something tragic happen first? is it scary? is there a miracle involved? or is it uneventful with the heroine worrying for no reason?

“for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.” {isaiah 55:8}

the story-teller is omniscient, and knows things the characters involved can’t yet see or understand.

so the characters must be patient and allow the story to play out, trusting that the author is weaving each situation into the grand plot. there will be a purpose, even if it is only seen in the end.

and we have the promise that, in the end, it will all be okay.

“in this world you will have trouble. but take heart! i have overcome the world.” {john 16:33}

“fear not, i am the first and the last, and the living one. i died, and behold i am alive forevermore, and i have the keys of death and hades.” {revelation 1:17-18}