Dessert First: When The Ending is so Great You Have To Begin With It.

When I was 19, I packed up my belongings, and my parents dropped me off at my dorm. Our dorm rooms had a minimum of three people in each room. When I met my roommates, I knew I had won the lottery. Two sweet, smart, funny, young women. One roommate became a close friend and we began eating i together everyday our schedules allowed. 

Now, I should say that we were fairly lucky. Our community college not only happened to have a dorm, but also a culinary program. That meant that cafeteria food was amazing, and people actually WANTED to eat there. 

As my roommate and I ate lunch everyday, I noticed that she always picked a delicious dessert and ate it first. After a few weeks of lunches with her, I worked up the courage to ask her what the deal was. 

“Jeanette, somethings are just too good to be at the end of the meal. The stuff they make here is so delicious that I have to begin with it.”

Y’all, she was right. Here I am almost two decades older. I hope I am a little wiser. And I want to tell you...there are some endings so great you have to begin with them. 

What if I told you there was a story with an ending so great, it just HAD to be where we begin?

It’s a love story. The best and biggest love story with simply the most amazing happily ever after. 

Romeo and Juliet?

No. 

Lancelot and Guinevere?

Nope. 

Cleopatra and Mark Antony?

Not a chance. 

This love story ends with a promise of eternity together. Of a forever home, with many rooms.  

Will you pause with me to read a part of the end?

In John 14:2, we are promised an unbelievable end to the story of our lives. 

  

“In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” (ESV)

And y’all, brace yourself. That is just the beginning. The promises get even more amazing. In Revelations 21:1-4 we are promised that every tear will be dried, that death will be defeated, mourning will cease, and pain will be no more. 

A life with no more suffering, limitless love, and an eternity with our creator? Now that is an ending that is always worth beginning with!

It gets better yet! All of this amazingness? This eternal reward? The debt has already been settled. Our eternity secured. 

 We read of the amazing sacrifice in John 3:16...

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (ESV)

Did you catch that? All that is required for an eternity free of pain and suffering is to believe!

Right about now, you may be thinking “Jeanette, all of this sounds great, but I don’t have to have dessert now. And eternity sounds great, but right now I don’t have to worry about life after death”. 

I hear you. Really. Procrastinating is so second nature to me that it’s a running joke amongst my family and friends. While it is true that   tomorrow is never promised, I think a relationship with God based on fear of the afterlife is like life-insurance; it is reassuring, but offers you little more than a safety net. A relationship with God based on a desire to never walk through sorrows alone and to love without limits, however; that is the only kind of love story that can rival such an amazing end. 

Will you join me in establishing our place in our Heavenly Father’s family home for eternity?