Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed… Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52, 58)

When reading a novel, have you ever skipped to the final pages to read the ending before you actually finish the book? I have! Maybe as you were reading, the main character is in such trouble you wonder… “Are they going to just kill him off? Does he actually make it? How is this going to turn out?” You can’t resist and by skipping to the end, you find out for sure whether “it will all work out in the end.” It is human nature to want to know.

This past Tuesday I had the privilege of conducting my first funeral service at Arlington National Cemetery. I stood on that sacred ground surrounded by a sea of granite headstones, in a place where presidents and privates and men and women from every conflict in American history have been laid to rest. Grieving family and friends gathered there in sight of the Lincoln memorial and Washington monument and we took in the precision and pageantry of a military funeral. From the playing of taps to the 21-gun salute and the folding and presentation of the American flag from the flag draped coffin, it was sobering reminder of sacrifice, loss and the seeming finality of death.

I had 5-7 minutes to speak. So I read the scripture (above) and reminded the family that though their loss was unexpected and tragic, and we do well to mourn and grieve, REMEMBER, even at this cemetery, we are still only in the middle of the story… it is not the final chapter. And God in his infinite love and wisdom has allowed us to flip ahead to read the final chapter in advance. For those who are God’s children through faith in the Lord Jesus, there is an amazing reversal on the last page- “perishable is clothed with the imperishable and mortality with immortality.” It’s already written down, firm, solid, irrefutable. We are in the middle of the story now but we know how it ends. And God has told us so we might not be discouraged and can find faith, hope and courage to press on.

So, how has the middle been looking for you? Pretty grim? Full of struggle, unexpected reversals and disappointment? Regardless of what life dishes up, the final chapter has been written and we will overcome. Thanks be to God ! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (v.57). We may be in the middle, but we KNOW how it ends.