Life is full of tragedy, seemingly without meaning. One moment you’re basking in glory, and the next, stricken and searching for answers.
I once heard the story of a man who spent his life in preparation for serving the gospel. Leaving his family fortune behind, William Borden graduated from Yale, studied at Princeton theological seminary, and departed for further training in Egypt – a bright, brilliant star.
He died shortly after – a light snuffed out. If death is truly the end, then Bordon’s death was a pointless waste.
It all seemed so senseless to me until I read and understood Micah 3:16-17:
“…those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. ‘On the day when I act,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘they will be my treasured possession.’”
God’s purpose for our lives goes far deeper than ministry; He doesn’t want our ministry, He wants us. We are His treasured possession.
For the follower of Christ, death is not a period; it is a comma. God is not working on us so we can be more effective ministers; He is working on us because He loves us. Our story begins, not ends at death. God didn’t end Borden’s story; he turned the page and started the next chapter, as if to say, “I cannot wait for you to come home, son—today is the day.”
Ephesians 2:6-7 says that “…God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
God’s purpose for us is to display the riches of His grace to us. This is a task that will take all of eternity, since His grace is infinite. We will spend all of eternity watching as God unloads treasure after treasure from His infinite hoard of grace, mercy, and kindness. This is our story.
Life on this plane isn’t a movie; it doesn’t end with every loose end conveniently tied up, and we’re often left asking “Why” without hope of hearing an answer.
All of our pain, all of the seemingly senseless agony and tragedy of this life, all of our rejections and sufferings, and everything we’ve lost are all unwoven threads of an unfinished tapestry, but the day will come when all of our scars and all of our stories are woven together by the Master Weaver Himself. On that day alone will it finally make sense, but until then, we know that He is the God who walks with us through our pain.
Bordon understood this. One of the last things he wrote in his Bible before he died was this simple phrase, “No regrets.”
Welcome home, son.
Finally, it all makes sense.
