(This is true in our own lives too. Our endings will either bring meaning to our lives or they will peeter out and we will be buried and that's it. Paul tells us to finish the race. Finish strong. I'm putting this in parenthesis because this is not what I wanted to talk about, but maybe someone out there needs to read this part.)
The most perfect story of all is God's story. And we find it being played out through all our lives and through all of creation and through time and beyond time. The ending is already available for us to read, and if we do this, many things will be clear. Yes, Revelation. You gotta read Revelation. We just finished it in Sunday School at our church. We studied it simply. We just read through the text, maybe got a few quotes from authors who have studied the book and some other sources, but we would read it together and discuss questions. No, we didn't answer all our questions. No one can do that. But there are a few things we learned that will help you read it (because you need to read it and you need to read it regularly). Here are a few things we learned:
1. Revelation is not written chronologically. Don't try to read it like each chapter follows the next in time. This book is outside of time but also is part of our time.
2. There are images that are very scary, and no one really knows what they mean, but we need to be familiar with the text so when it happens, we think, "Aha, that is what it meant in Revelation."
3. This will be controversial, but it doesn't have to be -- just read the text for yourself and decide. But I know after reading and studying the book there is no rapture in there. We aren't being taken out. Not everyone in our Sunday School class agrees with this. People love the Rapture part, and if you want to believe that, go ahead. But I found that when someone holds onto a teaching they were taught outside the Bible, it sure makes things confusing when you read the text because they are trying to find the teaching they were taught.
4. The 1000-year reign is the time when God is going to fulfill lots of promises! This is the Messiah the Jewish people have been waiting for. I have been reading through Isaiah recently and there are so many passages about the 1000-year reign in that book I never noticed before. It brings understanding to texts I have read in the past but didn't really understand.
5. We don't have to be afraid of the end.
6. God wins. We win.
7. Finally, we are warned not to add or take away from Revelation. Revelation 22:18 says, "I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the books of this prophecy, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city, which are written about in this book."
You gotta read it. Read it. Then, read it again. And if you want our Sunday School lessons about Revelation, I can surely send them your way. Just let me know!