The End Of All Things

It’s the end of the story that kills me. At the end of every television show I’ve ever loved, at the end of almost every movie I’ve loved, at the end of all journeys, my heart aches.

I do not want it to end. I want to stay in the lives of these people and these places. Do not make me go. Don’t leave. Stay with me a little longer.

Lately, I’ve wondered why the ending of these stories bothers me so much. At times, I’m paralyzed by depression for hours after it’s over. Why? They are stories for goodness sakes. They are actors. It’s not real.

And yet it is...

The feelings that arise in me are real. Longing, love, aches, pain, sorrow, joy, laughter, fear, adventure, all of it is real to me. And it hurts when it is over. Why?

Because it’s not right. It’s not how things are meant to be. We are supposed to live eternal lives, not temporary ones. Our friends, our lovers, our family, these people and these relationships were designed to last forever. Something has gone wrong. The feelings of longing and sorrow I have at the end of all stories that move me let me know with certainty that something is not right.

Not yet. But it will be. One glorious day, all that has been made temporary will be made eternal. The work has already begun. Christ is daily restoring what has been lost. Even those of his flock that perish, only perish in this world. We WILL see each other again. This is not the end. Our destiny is eternal.

So knowing this, why do I still grieve at the end? I grieve because it still hurts, no matter what I know. That’s life. “It’s real and it hurts,” as Zach Braff once wrote. But it’s NOT all we have. In my opinion it is only the beginning.

Earlier, I said that most movies leave me sad. But not all do. Tonight, I watched one that doesn’t. Near the end of Star Wars, Episode III, life is terrible. The situation could not be any worse. I hurt for many reasons every time I watch the last parts of the movie. All is lost. Darkness, death, and tragedy have prevailed.

Until it reaches the very last moments. Suddenly, as an orphaned baby is given to two new parents, a whisper in the darkness is heard. A light shines. After all the destruction, and all of the heartbreak, two suns shine on a barren land. And from that bottomless pit of despair, a New Hope is born. The end of all things turns out to be only the beginning. The beginning of a new, unimaginable place. An unthought of time that exists outside of time. Freedom. Reality. Life as it was meant to be.

At the end of all things it is the sorrow, not the life that will be fleeting. For He has set eternity in our hearts, and what he gives he does not take away.