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Thursday Thoughts

July 20, 2023

I enjoy reading all sorts of books and stories. One of my favorite genres is historical non-fiction and fiction. Currently, I am reading a fictional book about a family that lived in the mountains near Elkton in the early 1900s. Family names and places are familiar and the place in town where my late husbands’ grandfather managed, is one of the main places of employment. This takes place right before the government’s eminent domain proceedings started, uprooting families from everything they knew and loved about the mountain way of life. This topic is beginning to show up in the storyline and the people are sure that this couldn’t happen. There are strong characters in the story. It is impossible for me to not feel like I know them, have empathy for them, and hope they will be alright in the end.

I have a confession to make, one that I’m sure is some bibliophilic law I am breaking. When I get into a book, I am totally absorbed. For me to cope with the story, I turn to the last few pages and see if the protagonist and the supporting characters have made it to the end! Some of you may have gasped. Why do I do this? I have this need to prepare myself for whatever is ahead for the characters. Maybe some of you may do the same thing. It’s a silly thing to do, but it gives me some peace of mind and I can go on reading knowing how the story will end. Now, if there is a dog in the story and the dog dies, you can forget it, the book is put down never to be read again. That is why I never read Old Yeller and Where The Red Fern Grows. This whole idea is ridiculous and a physiologist would probably have a field day diagnosing my issues as I have said before, you know too much about me by reading Thursday Thoughts.

Isn’t it wonderful that we don’t have to wonder about what is going to happen to us in the end? We already know the end of our story. We don’t have the details about when and how it is we are to get there, but because we are believers in Jesus Christ, we have already read the last few pages of our life’s story and it turns out great! Better than great! Our time here is so minuscule in the grand scheme of things that suffering may come for a while but the morning is coming clear and bright.

“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘What is written in the Law?’ he replied, ‘How do you read it?’ He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.’ You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’”

We are given this promise in Romans 10: 9, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul wrote: “For it is by grace you have been saved. Through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.”

We don’t have to guess how our story ends, we know by faith that we don’t have to wring our hands and be filled with anxiety. Our story ends happily ever after!

Blessings,

Becky

Bridgewater UMC 

Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!  

219 N Main Street

Bridgewater, VA 22812

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