I love to read. A lot. Reaching the end of a great book is always bittersweet. It is wonderful to reach the resolution and the place where everything comes together (books that don’t reach that point are terribly frustrating!) But there is a poignancy in reaching the conclusion as well. Sometimes we just don’t want it to end. We don’t want to let go of the space we have shared with the characters and the story that has entered into our hearts and affected us in meaningful ways (that’s why there are such things as sequels and spinoffs!)
Sometimes in the messy middle of a book, the end of a chapter feels like the end, period. But until the actual end there is always a new chapter to begin. New experiences, new hope, new growth. There is still some bitter to get through and some sweetness to find.
We have chapters in life that end. We have some that feel like the end, period. But just like in books, our story is not over. There is, for us as well, new experiences, new hope and new growth to realize.
We don’t really like endings because we are truly eternal beings. Elder Uchtdorf said it better than anyone I know: “There seems to be something in us that resists endings. Why is this? Because we are made of the stuff of eternity. We are eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless and who promises eternal blessings without number. Endings are not our destiny…How grateful I am to…Heavenly Father that…there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings.” (“Grateful in Any Circumstances,” General Conference, April 2014)
The end of our chapters will be bittersweet in many cases. We will miss the space we shared with others in our sphere and the influence that experience has had on our hearts and our progress. How comforting to know that it is not the end of our story, however. That, in fact, our story never ends. Everlasting beginnings mean continuous opportunities to try, to improve, to grow, to learn, to explore, to experience.
Our challenge and invitation is to be grateful for all of the chapters that make up our story, to find the good in all of them, to rise to the opportunities presented us in all changing circumstances and locations, to seek progress and transformation through them all and to continue looking to the Author of our life stories to guide us in each new chapter.
He is the master Author after all, who knows how to make each story meaningful and beautiful; to move us toward the glorious end for which we were all formed and destined.
Which isn’t really an end at all.
