The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our[a] hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. (1 Corinthians 3:2)I just finished a book and it made me sad.
It was a Larry McMurtry book about Billy the Kid and it was extremely well-written. McMurtry’s books almost always are.
But about 30 – 40 pages from the end, I knew I was coming to a close. And I was reluctant.
A good book makes me that way. It makes me want to put it down and go do something else for a while, if nothing else just to put the ending of the book off.
When I finish, it is (if a good book) a sad thing. And I will have to admit that almost any book will affect me that way.
I read the Bible through every year. And when I come to the end of Revelation, it has that same impact.
He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen, come Lord Jesus! May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s holy people.
John ends with the invitation to come on, be through, come get us now. Of course, it has been over 1900 years since then, but I feel that way myself.
Ending a book does not mean ending life. It just means you go on to the next. In the case of the Bible, it means I start over again.
I re-read some books. The McMurtry book I just finished I have read before. But I love his writing style and his endings are so good. They just stop. No real ending, just stopping.
The same with the Bible. It is on-going in the lives of the believer. It continues in what we do and say. Yes, the writing part stopped, but the voice of God is still active and alive.
When we live in him, that written word continues, just as surely as if there are extra chapters and extra books. When it comes down to it, we are books of his, we are, as the apostle Paul said, his epistles. People see in us, or should see in us, that which God says and believes and gives to the world.
When we die, our book stops, but those we have touched are able to read it further in their remembering what we have said and done and in the writing of their own books.
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