Good stories often come with a prologue – an introduction setting the stage for the main narrative. And there’s no disappointment here when things are left unresolved because we’ve not yet entered the rest of the story. In the same way, life in this world should be considered as just the prologue to the next.
To be sure, we want to make the most of our time in this life. It’s our responsibility to manage well all that God has given us. And this means we have a duty to make an impact for good in the time and place we have.
All the same, even when we finish well in this life, there are often unfinished symphonies that remain. And at other times it seems that death comes too soon – stealing loved ones in the prime of life, or just as they were starting to get their life on track. Either way, this no longer has to be a point of despair when we see this life as merely prologue.
Our life continues in the coming kingdom. And we must not think of this in terms of a merely earthly retirement – our days spent playing proverbial shuffle ball in the sky. Like a baby leaving his mother’s womb and now living a fuller expression of his humanity, it’s better to see death as also a type of birth into a new reality. As our dying bodies are transformed into bodies that will never die, we then get to live free from sin and engage in grand adventures beyond what we can even imagine in this life.
As such, it’s okay when we don’t see things resolved as we might like in this life. We weep while also remembering this is just the beginning.
In the end, to live in prologue is to live in hope. Make the most of your time in this life and remember the best is still yet to come.
Photo by Eldar Nazarov on Unsplash
