When I was a child, one of my favorite books had a hardbound gray linen cover with embossed gold lettering. Inside, bound in between the cover and the story that waited, lay a smooth, translucent sheet of tissue-thin paper. It felt fancy. I would open the book over and over just to touch that piece of vellum, to hear it whisper as it turned, telling of the joy in the pages to come. It teased my senses that the story was partially hidden, building my anticipation for its happy ending.
Don’t we all want happy endings? These days seem thin on castles and princes and storybook endings, though, and our world feels stuck behind a thick covering. It’s a constant tension, isn’t it, that expectation we carry for easy and comfortable and happy and the reality of hard and broken and fallen? While I pray and long for a great rescuing and healing from all that is broken, I also feel the tension of knowing that God didn’t actually promise chapters of happy.
As a Jesus girl, I hold fast to the promise that He will return and redeem and restore. I know the ending will be joyous. But in the hard part of waiting and living this in-between, I admit, I need more than that promise. I need Him here, now.
I didn’t know until well into my adulthood that He’s here in this hard stuff too. When I feel fear and confusion and uncertainty in these raw, painful places, and I read His Word and seek His presence, He is faithful to not only meet me, but also direct me through every page. Every single one.
Just like when I opened that beautiful linen storybook, what I long for waits in the writing of the last paragraph. Until then, I will keep turning the pages, seeking Him in each line.
Read the rest at The Joyful Life Magazine.