“And 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 from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.’”
Revelation 21:6-7 (ESV)
We are familiar with many movies we have watched. We even have favourites – the ones we memorise the lines, sing along to, and cry and cry again, even if we’ve watched them for the 100th time. We remember the stories, the plots, the subplots, and then the conclusion – how the story ends. Each good storyline has a beginning, a conflict, a resolution, and a conclusion. A good story must have these elements in some form or another – otherwise, it is missing some critical parts that do not gratify or make sense. Most of the stories we know conclude with something like, “and they lived happily ever after.” It makes for a satisfying story, where everything is complete with a proper outcome at the end.
Our lives also have their stories. The main difference between our life stories and fairy tales or movies is that our lives are real – we experience joy and sadness, victory and defeat, success and failure, and so on, on a factual daily basis.
God’s beautiful plan for us
We all have our beginnings. We did not influence when, where, or how we were born. Someone made those decisions for us – our Creator. He was the mind and the source of our existence. He could have freely made a world without us, but it was His choice that we are here at this point in time and space. God has a beautiful plan for us – He is keen to invite us to share His divine fellowship and partake in the friendship of the Triune God and His angelic community. He gave us free will – we can choose to say yes or no to that plan. We can make our own plans for our lives without God. It is our freedom to choose Him, whether God is delighted or saddened with us.
We also face our own conflicts. We encounter challenges, trials, pain, and difficulties in life. Sometimes we ask, “What is going on with my life?” We confront a world that falls into sin daily, marked by evil. We see greed, anger, lust, envy, selfishness, pride, and more – among our friends, family, and within ourselves. We recognise a fallen human nature that works with the influence of the world and the evil one. In today’s world, it’s common to put our own needs before others. It’s all about me – my success, feelings, and life.
Whose path do we pursue?
Then, we come to the conflict resolution stage. That is where we come to our Creator and see the difference in how we live and how God wants us to live our lives. We experience the emptiness deep in our souls of living a greedy and selfish life – it does not fulfil our God-given longing. We come to the Cross of Christ – where we are offered a new life based on God and to live in the power of God’s Spirit. It is now up to us to choose our path – to seek our own ways for our lives or to accept the invitation from God to live a life with Him.
Our story is currently at this stage. We cannot yet see the conclusion. Although many of us have decided to follow God’s plan for our lives, we still struggle with a broken and dying world. We will have to fight the good fight of faith until the Lord calls us home finally, where we can see our conclusion for real. For now, we face the daily grind of living with pain and suffering, as well as the consequences of sin in our lives, while looking forward to the eternal hope to come.
Eternal life is to know, love, and reign with God and his people
What is the conclusion of our story? It started with God and will end with God. We will see His face. We will spend the rest of our lives with God and His people. Gone will be sorrow, pain, suffering and death. We will learn what He is like. He will teach us to become like Him, and we will become like Him. We will become mini-Christs in everything. We will have a big party with all those who also choose God to be His friend.
We will have an eternity to know, learn, love and serve one another. We will meet the saints and the martyrs who have given up everything for their love for God. We will meet holy men and women of the ancient days and compare our experiences in this life. We will assemble in a grand prayer gathering composed of all angelic beings, saints, and martyrs, and we will finally triumph over our battles in the unity of the Holy God.
We will become God’s agents worldwide – and even in the universe. God is the God of the vast universe, and each of us will have a role in having dominion over all creation. We will reign with God to explore, discover, and reign over all of God’s creation. We will rule with God forever and enjoy His friendship for all time.
That is what I call living happily ever after.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’”
Revelation 21:3-4 (ESV)
Top image credit: Landscape photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash. Free to use under the Unsplash License.
Tom Caballes is a National Coordinator of the Lamb of God, a community of the Sword of the Spirit with seven branches located throughout New Zealand. Tom and his wife Mhel and their two daughters [with his son-in-law and grand-daughter] live in Wellington, New Zealand.