I am making everything new.
—Revelation 21:5
Non-fiction books often begin with a prologue and end with an epilogue.
A prologue is an opening section that introduces the main story, usually giving backstory information about the primary characters that connects them to the main story.
You’re living a non-fiction life, with its ups-and-downs, its pleasures and pains; living the prologue to the main story. As Paul Harvey was fond of saying, “We earn the sweet by-and-by, by how we deal with the messy here-and-now.”
The main story is an eternal happily-ever-after: “No more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Rv 21:4).
An epilogue is a final segment where the author wraps up the loose ends of the main story.
There is no epilogue to our main story, for it’s a story—a life—that never ends.
Life is prologue. The main event comes next.