To Us

. . . to us the message of this salvation has been sent.

 - From Acts 13

The Bible is one big build-up to a simple finale. There is so much complexity, intrigue, drama, tragedy, fear, dread, sorrow, destruction, death . . . 

 . . . on the way to the Big Finish. 

I'm a long distance runner. It goes back forty years to my high school days, as a Cross Country athlete. I earned three varsity letters, and my senior year was awarded the "Senior Trophy" for being a steady leader, with character. I was not the fastest runner. I wasn't even in the top three. But over my three years I had been consistent, and had a great attitude. The running experience has stayed with me. It's hard for me to walk a trail, or street, for very long, before I want to begin running. I'm going to run 5K today, in fact, some time this afternoon. 

Every step of a 5K is hard. I don't even know how many total steps you take, in that distance. But every single stride is something that I am aware of. You look off ahead . . . at a hundred yards, maybe a quarter mile. You may be running into the sun, or the wind. It may be 90 degrees and humid, or thirty-five degrees and rainy. Your destination seems so far away. But you take each step, one at a time. The last fifty yards seem so long . . . but in time you're finished, and you feel so good at what you just accomplished. 

This is God's plan for the earth. It is a long, long, marathon. Humanity must learn so many lessons. It seems like, on the balance, it is such a long, hard road. You feel like the downs outnumber the ups. Worry, fretting, heartache. We endure all of it, for the sake of an afternoon of sheer joy. We live for the good moment . . . the Big Finish. 

Some time after the ascension of Christ, maybe months, or years, we see the Apostle Paul in the synagogue. He reviews the experience of Israel, through the years. He stresses the thread of salvation running through history. We want to understand why there is so much hardship and sorrow. But Paul reminds them of God's promise, and brings his comments to a Big Finish:

We've got the message for you. It's reliable, and it's from God. Here it is . . . 

2020 is even closer to Paul's Big Finish. We're two millennia closer. As bad as we always thought things would get . . . we can see how they easily could become worse yet; if they aren't already. But like the finish to a race, the culmination of a betrothal by way of vows, or a moment of recline at the end of a day of hard work . . . we have the message. We've got the ending. The end is in sight.

The message is the Way. It is the way out. It is our way through. Keep it right there, just ahead of you, and follow it.