Our granddaughter Madison was in Birmingham over the weekend, so we had the pleasure of spending time with her. When she attended Samford University, we saw her almost every weekend. Now that she has graduated, she lives in Baton Rouge, and we do not see her as often.

Last night was fun as we shared pizza, watched a Hallmark movie, and played “25 Words or Less.” Lots of laughter.

While chatting during her visit, we began reminiscing about events we had shared in the past. Madison recalled when I was visiting her in Baton Rouge while she was in junior high school. Her school was performing a play, and Madison wanted to attend and see her friends. I agreed to take her.

The students were doing a terrific job of acting, but my favorite part was watching the delight on Madison’s face as she watched her friends’ acting skills. When the production was over, Madison and I hurried out to avoid the traffic congestion that would be in the parking lot.

As we were driving home, we began to discuss the play we had just witnessed. Both of us admitted that it really did not make a lot of sense, especially the ending. The story left far too many loose ends. Alas, we would never know how it turned out for the people in the story.

The next morning, Madison went to school, and I picked her up that afternoon. She looked at me with a big grin and explained why the play made no sense to us.  Madison said, “We left at intermission.”

Yep, we did not realize that we walked out without knowing the rest of the story!

To say that we live in strange and chaotic times is an understatement! It is important for us as believers to realize that we are living in a time of intermission. The story is not finished. God will have the final word. Don’t check out!

Is what you see around you upsetting? That is understandable. It would do the people of God well to turn to the final chapters in Revelation again and again. Faith needs to know how the story ends. Faith needs to be assured of the ending, especially when it can be hard to see God, and especially when times are tumultuous.

Living in the time of intermission can be trying. We are all in this place – the place of longing for God to bring forth the ending. Romans tells us that the whole creation is waiting for God’s full redemption. “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” – Romans 8:18-22

Surely, we hunger and thirst for justice. We long for the day when God’s holy name will be fully honored, the day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We pray for the day when there will be no more pain. We look forward to the day when sin is gone for good, hatefulness is gone for good, and politics has run its course. We look forward to God having the final word. It will come! It will!

Read Revelation twenty-two over and over. What a blessed hope we have! Entrance into the holy city, the new Jerusalem, that beautiful, shining city where God will dwell with His people. A city where pain, chaos, and injustice will be gone. A city of extraordinary joy. A city of life, where death and mourning and crying and pain will be no more. A city of joy, where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. What a blessed hope we have!

That is the end of the story. Don’t checkout during intermission. Wait for the end.