Ever since stories were told, whether verbally or in print, those on the receiving end have brought something to the process. Their own experience shapes the images in their heads. (Does the sinister character have a pug nose like the kid who bullied them at school, or a pointy nose like the neighbour who always yelled at people for cutting across the corner of her lawn?) Whether the authors of these stories or their readers were aware of it, a significant part of the creative process went on in the head of the listener/reader.
The visual media offer less options to the viewer. We have to be satisfied with the director’s vision of what the vacant mansion, the inside of the space ship, the rundown rooming house or whatever, looked like. Perhaps this restriction has been part of the motivation to provide alternate endings. Though the images are fixed, the plot can become a little less rigid by allowing the viewer to have a say in how the whole thing ends.
This ability to choose the ending certainly holds appeal for us. It gives us a sense of control and allows us to walk away knowing that, while others may have chosen a different resolution to the movie plot, we have seen one which is personally satisfying. We are not forced to accept someone else’s vision of justice or reality or even sentiment.
As I was looking a movie poster which advertized the multiple endings on a certain DVD, I thought how we would like to be able to get to the end of life, realize that the outcome was not ultimately satisfying, return to some earlier point and start again so we could finish in a way which suits us better.
Movie magic has put fantastic images before our eyes. It offers any flavour of reality we could possibly desire. Now, it even allows us to choose the outcome of the plot. But movie magic is limited. It may give the illusion that reality is relative, that the climax is convertable, that the finish is flexible, but it can’t deliver when people reach for the remote as the credits roll.
No one can go back and rewrite the script so that the final scene in life is untouched by what has gone before. That scene is determined by the choices made in earlier in the movie. But while we can’t edit or rewrite the scenes which have already been shot, we do have the ability to adjust the scenes that remain before the final theme begins to play and the screen goes dark.
By observing the lives of people whose stories are recorded in the Bible, we see the difference between those who take God seriously and those who don’t. We see how God graciously allows us to change the ending regardless of the direction the plot has been running in previous scenes. The instant that people take God at His word, a new ending is assured. For some, this was from early in life, so early that it is unrecorded. For others, it was literally within minutes of their death.
Perhaps you see that the course of your life is not running in a direction which allows you to take a final deep breath of satisfaction and anticipation as the screen goes dark. It’s not too late to change that. Don’t worry about the scenes that are already shot. You can’t do anything about them. But you can begin to change the final scene by rewriting the one you are shooting today.
“Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 - The Message
Ron Hughes
© November 2007