When I was in college, I went to my friend Kristine’s house for dinner with her family. Following dinner, they asked if I’d be interested in joining them for a family movie night. The film was Amelia. A biopic of Amelia Earhart starring Hillary Swank.
For the most part, I remember it being very light-hearted and endearing, lacking the dramatic flair that I am typically drawn to in a film. That is, until the end.
In the final scenes of the movie, Earhart is trying to make contact over the radio without any success. Unbeknownst to her, the signal is getting through to the intended party but there is a thick overcast which prohibits her from seeing their smoke signals. The movie ends with a voice-over, sad overlay of music, and her husband standing on the shoreline looking out toward the ocean and sky… waiting for her to fly back to him.
This is the part where I groaned, discouraged. “Oh man. Wow. What a twist.”
Suddenly, the eyes of the living room turned around and looked strangely at me. I thought to myself, Terrible timing, Kari. Let these people watch the movie without you interjecting every 5 minutes!
Kristine spoke first. “Wait. What do you mean? What twist?” she snickered.
“Well, I just didn’t see that coming,” I commented. “She died without having finished what she really set out to do. That’s just so sad!” I couldn’t quite convey what I was feeling. That ending just seemed way too abrupt to me.
It became obvious to me that I was on the outside of some weird inside joke. Soon every member of her family was holding back laughter. These incredibly polite people just could not help themselves!
What?! I thought. What is so funny?!
Apparently I was the only one who slept through history class and completely missed the part about Amelia Earhart dying while trying to circumnavigate the globe, being lost at sea over the Pacific Ocean, and all of the conspiracy theories that claim she’s still alive somewhere hanging out in hiding with Elvis Presley.
Not knowing the ending of that story, I watched the entire movie with this hopeful optimism for our underdog, Amelia. So of course it came as a crushing blow to find out that the movie’s heroine dies mid-flight!
Fast forward to a few nights ago. I’m watching yet another biopic on the budding friendship of country legends Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline. The movie highlights Cline and Lynn’s start of career, flaws within their marriages and parenting, along with the difficulties faced being women in a predominantly male industry.
This time, I had the foreknowledge that Patsy Cline died early on in her career. In a plane accident, mind you. So I’m watching this movie with such sorrow in my heart, knowing full well that this story doesn’t have a Hallmark ending. I couldn’t commit to being emotionally present in the plot because my heart was being guarded by the inevitable.
I started to think back on that time I made a fool of myself while watching Amelia at the Malones’ house over a decade ago and I made some connections.
In my life as a believer in Christ Jesus, which ending am I more aware of? Am I walking around with the foreknowledge that Christ died, or am I walking into each moment knowing that He has Risen? Both are true. While one might compel me to live a life of gratitude, the other draws me into life everlasting and empowers me to step out triumphantly into each day as Jesus did that Palm Sunday some 2,000 years ago.
We have the best story to tell. We have the best news. People all over our community are living life thinking that there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. No hope for the dark days they find themselves in. We have the foreknowledge of a living hope and His name is Jesus! Emmanuel! Savior of the World! Hosanna in the Highest!
This week, you have the juiciest spoiler alert for saints and sinners alike. When we walk through these stories–Palm Sunday, The Last Supper, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday– bear in mind the final scenes of God’s story… our story.
See, the ending to our story is that there is no ending.
In Him we have eternal hope and glory, boundless blessings, abiding grace, unrelenting love, an unbreakable covenant, and a love without end.
I pray this over you today as we step into Holy Week. May you walk in its truth.
-Kari
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”
- 1 Peter 1:3-4
Love it. Love you.
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