Tell Me a Story

I love stories. I read them...obsessively at times. I write them...when I have time. And I dream them...my last thoughts often before sleep are about my characters. How can I help him grow? What will help her overcome? What opportunity do they need to change? Would this circumstance push them away or pull them closer to Christ?
And while my endings are always happy -- sometimes the answers to these questions lead my stories through some dark times for my characters. Death. Consequences for sin. Sorrow. Pain. Illness and injury. These things pave the way for me to mold each character into better versions of themselves on the way to that wonderful ending. My characters always turn out precisely as I want...because they aren't real. We are God's characters.
The ending to God's story isn't just happy -- it is perfect (check out read Isaiah 11 or Revelation 21). But until then, God is writing His story in each of our lives. And sometimes that story hurts. People die. We reap what we sowed. We grieve and hurt. We fall ill and suffer. We are not precisely the way God wants. But God knows the answers to those questions I ask about my characters. And He is bringing us through what we need to our own wonderful ending, heaven.
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. -- John 16:33