“When bridges seem to give way, we fall into Christ’s safe arms, true bridge, and not into hopelessness. It is safe to trust! We can be too weak to go on because His strength is made perfect in utter brokenness and nail-pierced hands help up. It is safe to trust! We can give thanks in everything because there’s a good God leading, working all things into good. It is safe to trust! The million bridges behind us may seem flattened to the earthly eye, but all bridges ultimately hold, fastened by nails. It is safe to trust.” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are).

Lately, it seems that chaos is in control. I read recently about yet another mass shooting, this one in Las Vegas on the last day of a music festival. I wonder yet again why someone would want to fire a semi-automatic into a crowd of people.

It seems more and more that death and natural disasters are becoming the norm, and security is an illusion.

Then I read the last page of the Bible. The last page doesn’t end with “and they all died.” It doesn’t end with “they tried to make the best of a bad situation.”

The Bible ends with God making all things new. Or as C. S. Lewis put it, the end is in reality the true beginning of the real story, of which all of history was merely the title and the table of contents. This real story goes on forever and each chapter is better than the one before.

This present story is filled with heartbreak and sadness. The story that’s coming will be about how God wipes away every tear from their eyes and how there will be no more sadness or weeping or death.

So I say, “Come, Lord Jesus. Until then, be with us in the midst of turmoil and hardship and suffering. Be with all who mourn. Be our safe bridge to cross when all the world gives way.

Amen.