It Will All Be Alright In The End

I have learnt not to trust cooking programmes. 

 

They do not present a realistic view of what a kitchen really looks like when one is in the middle of cooking.  Instead, they are air-brushed and clinically clean - not an accurate reflection of real life in the kitchen.

 

Whenever I am cooking a big meal, my kitchen looks an absolute mess during the process.  When I am halfway through, there are pots and pans stacked by the sink, soaking to get them clean again.  Every utensil I own is scattered somewhere about the kitchen.  There will be food out on every available surface and it will all look a complete tip.

 

However, by the time it comes to serve everything, I will have tidied away the left-over ingredients, washed up the stack of dishes and cleaned every surface so that my kitchen once again appears presentable.

 

When I'm in the middle of cooking, I never worry about the mess around me.  I know that it will be alright in the end.

 

As Paolo Coelho said, "It will be alright in the end.  If it's not alright, it's not the end."

 

However, I rarely apply this principle to the rest of my life. 

 

I panic if I am in the middle of sorting something out, or working on something and processing or creating something, and it looks messy.  If things don't appear to be in control, I begin to feel uneasy and doubt that everything will be alright in the end.  I lack the long-term vision that seems to come so easily when I am cooking.  Instead, I get caught up in the mess that surrounds me.

 

But God promises that everything will be alright in the end.  John writes in his revelation of heaven,

“Look, God’s home is now among his people!  He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  All these things are gone forever.”

 

[Revelation 21:3-4 NLT]

 

No matter what life might look like now, no matter how often I find myself in the middle of the mess, I know that it will all be alright in the end.  Because of Him.