So you’re reading a great story, and you’ve fallen in love with the protagonist. You’ve enjoyed watching his or her character development through the tale, you’ve seen how they have met obstacles, setbacks, and victories. The tale has plenty of conflict, but each instance winds up ultimately fitting neatly into the narrative of the life of the main character. And finally, you reach the end of the story, the last chapter, and you close the book with grief, wishing there was more. The well-written tale comes to an end too soon. Sometimes, much too soon.
But wait! Go back and open the book again! Find the end of the last chapter, and turn the page! Look! There’s an epilogue! Oh, joy!
The epilogue of a great story has at least two functions: it tells a little bit about what happened to the protagonist and principal characters beyond the last chapter. You’re hungry for more, and the epilogue provides a brief but somewhat satisfying conclusion. It provides closure.
But an epilogue can have another purpose: sometimes it hints of a sequel, making room to extend the story. A sequel? Yes, a new story with the same character you have grown to love! A forthcoming book that the Author has promised, but which is not yet published.
There is a catch, however: if you don’t know the Author, there is no happy sequel—there’s no joy at the end of that tale, only woe and sorrow. But if you do know the Author, while you wait impatiently for the sequel, you know that it is coming and you can faintly taste the future joy that is promised.
For the one who has placed his trust in the Author of the Greatest Story Ever Told, the last chapter of the Book of Life still comes with painful grief, but also with hope. The last chapter is not the end, beloved. Read the epilogue. It promises a whole new story by the same Author.
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’” (John 11:25–26)
When your last chapter is written, will the readers of your story be able to look forward with joy to the sequel? Or will the last chapter be the final chapter, filled with hopeless, bitter grief?
