I was so eager to read Deathly Hallows and find out how it all ended that I pre-ordered it from Amazon and actually paid for the postage for the first (and last!) time so I could receive it on the publishing date! Then I practically snatched it off the postman when he delivered it at 8.30am, sat down and read it non-stop until I finished it at 5.30pm!!!!!
Quite apart from being a big fan of the Harry Potter books, I’m an absolute sucker for endings in general :-) They’re my favourite bit of a book by a long way and, to be honest, if a book really grips me then I rarely make it halfway through before I have a quick look at the last few pages to see how it’s all gonna end, lol!
I have friends who think I’m insane as they’d rather pluck out one of their eyeballs than know the ending before they get there but not me! If I’m rushing too fast through a book to find out if it ends how I want it to, then knowing something about the finale (and who survives!) takes away my anxiety. Once I know the ending then I’m calm again and I’m simply fascinated by how the story will meander and develop to get from where I am in it to the end. I can enjoy the ride rather than worry about where it’s heading :-)
Bad or unhappy endings are always a HUGE disappointment to me. They make me feel like I’ve wasted my time and I regret reading the book.
Fortunately for me, in another book I’m a big fan of I’m actively invited to look ahead and read the ending! Better still, it’s not a fictional tale but the true story of human life (including me!) In Revelation, the last book in the Bible, we have an incredible insight into the end of time through a vision experienced by John, one of Jesus’ disciples.
It’s a serious understatement to say that initially it’s not a pretty sight :-( There are massive difficulties to be faced by humanity which the Bible doesn’t gloss over or pretend won’t happen, followed by an epic battle of good versus evil. But after all that’s done, the ultimate ending for God’s people is an amazing eternity! We get to go to the ultimate wedding feast - aka a BIG party - in a new heaven and earth (better than the original ones) which we can enjoy forever!!!
It’s such a beautiful place that when John tries to describe it the best he can do is use exaggerated images of gold and lots of precious stones, but it still falls short of portraying it completely accurately! We’ll also be fully in the presence of the amazing God who loves us and “He will wipe every tear from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Rev 21:4) Woohoo!!
Knowing this ending takes away any worry I have about the future. I don’t know the exact detail of what will happen to me and the rest of humanity between now and then but we live it out each day in the same way we read a book a page at a time. It means that whatever happens – even when bad things happen – I know it will all be well in the end.
This may count as a bit of a spoiler…but I LOVED the ending of Deathly Hallows so much that I nearly wrote to JK Rowling to thank her for writing it so well :-) I hadn’t been convinced that she’d be able to bring together so many different strands successfully and in a way that was realistic rather than contrived. But she totally did, apparently because she’d plotted out all seven books carefully when she first began writing them.
God is the author of so much more than seven excellent books and therefore He will bring everything together at the end of our story even more successfully and satisfactorily! He sees and knows everything in all of eternity (not just our finite existence) and understands how it all fits together perfectly. He is the “Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Rev 21:6) and I am so looking forward to His amazing ending…or is it really a whole new beginning ;-)
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