It seems we have come to the end of this precious hallway.
In one way or another, time has gently and mercifully passed through its twists and turns and loop-de-loops. She is here. And we are forever changed.
But even as I sit here among the proof of such a quiet mercy, I find myself wanting to tell you something that I will never pen perfectly.
Yes, I have walked to the end of many hallways…
Those that end in light and sunshine and a pocket full of happy. Those that end in tears and gravesides and gut-punching loss. And even those that end in diagnosis and tough realities and a cane as sassy as I am.
Yes, I have walked and tripped and stumbled over and over and over again.
And yet?
There is something profoundly consistent in each remarkable ending…
That no matter its course or detour or sadness…
This life, this journey and the eternity waiting brings vibrant color from even the deepest loss…
His purposed hand turns ash into brilliant pinks that contrast the gray…
He shines beautiful into that which we often count as so ordinary…
He creates from love in a world determined to destroy by hate...
And He breathes a life-giving hope into that which might seem utterly hopeless…
So that when the hallways of this life end in ways we cannot reconcile, we can know this...
Jesus was and is there in every moment, every second and every gut-punching loss.
Never failing. Never forsaking. Never forgetting.
Carrying us in perfect, precious love from every beginning...
To every ending.
