When is our beginning?
Thinking only with an Earthly mindset, we would naturally answer this question with “at birth,” sometimes forgetting the fact that after physical death is eternity.
I recently came across the following statement in a small booklet: “The end is just the beginning.” It was referring to the fact that after our life here is over, for the Christian there is another life in a place that God has prepared. Jesus referred to this when he stated in John 14:2, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”
There are those who look at life here and think we somehow have been cheated. We think as believers that, sometimes, we have just gotten the short end of the stick. Becoming a Christian does not take away the battles of life. Sometimes, they may become more intense.
I do, however, believe that the Christian life offers more of what mankind really craves in those things such as peace, purpose and hope, and I believe Christians should be the most joy-filled people on Earth.
In Romans 8:18, the Apostle Paul gives encouragement to those who get weary along the journey: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
In other words, what God has waiting for us should not be compared to anything we might have to endure in this life.
We have something to look forward to, but for some who reject God’s plan through Jesus Christ, there also will be a new beginning. Eternity will not be a place to look forward to.
The good news is that we have a choice that will determine what that new beginning will look like.