Spoiler Alert: You see the words on movie reviews. These words are cautionary. Stop! Don't read ahead unless you want the element of surprise ripped from your movie-watching experience.
These words don't scare me, rather they excite!
The spoiler alert usually provides me with needful information: Is the movie worth it? If the main character dies in vain?......I'm not watching it. If the star-crossed lovers don't get together in the end?......Why waste my time? I'm looking for the good ending.
There is something better than the element of surprise.
Anticipation!
I've watched Pride and Prejudice forty times (in fact I might watch it again today). It doesn't bother me in the least that I know the last five minutes of the movie by heart:
Spoiler Alert: Elizabeth is up, though it's barely dawn. She's wrapped in a shawl, taking a walk (she's fond of walking). It's clear now that her prejudice toward the wealthy and handsome Mr. Darcy was, in fact, wrong. And she is uncomfortably aware of her feelings for him. Mr. Darcy is also unable to sleep. He hastens across the field to Elizabeth's side determined to declare his undying love once more.... This time his love is not refused.
Good endings make the painful parts bearable.
"This is my message to you:
Don't worry
about a thing
cause every little thing
gonna be alright"...
(Apparently I know a Bob Marley song. Oops. Oh well- seems appropriate)
Life is indeed a mystery. There are twists and turns in which we find ourselves unprepared for. In life we celebrate unexpected joys, and suffer miseries unimagined. Life is more beautiful and worthwhile with the knowledge that its dips and climbs are commenced by an everlasting joy.
God's been good enough to give us a spoiler alert. Dare to read ahead.
“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. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21:3,4
We, in Christ, have an ending worth anticipating; pain-free and joy-full
an un-ending, ending.