“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning…” – Ecclesiastes 7:8

Look to David’s greater Son—your Lord and Master—and consider His beginning. He was despised and rejected, a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Now look to His end:

He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He reigns in glory. He waits until all His enemies are made His footstool.

And Scripture tells us, “As He is, so are we in this world.” The path is the same. There is no crown without a cross. No golden pavement without first passing through the mire.

So take heart, weary Christian. The end is better than the beginning.

Consider the caterpillar—lowly, crawling, unimpressive. That is the beginning. Then see the butterfly, clothed in beauty, dancing in the sunlight. That is the end. So it is with you. Now you are wrapped in weakness. When Christ appears, you shall be like Him. You shall see Him as He is. Be willing to share His humiliation now, that you may share His glory forever.

Or think of the diamond. Rough and unremarkable, it is pressed to the wheel, cut on every side, losing what once seemed precious. Yet when the King is crowned and the trumpet sounds, that same stone flashes with glory from the royal diadem. So it is with the people of God. This life is the cutting; eternity is the coronation. Let faith and patience do their perfect work.

For when the King—Eternal, Immortal, Invisible—appears in glory, one ray of His splendor will shine through you.

“They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him” (Malachi 3:17).

Yes—better is the end of a thing than the beginning.

Prayer:

Gracious Father, when the road is hard and the work of shaping us is painful, lift our eyes to Christ. He was despised, yet now He reigns; He bore the cross, and now wears the crown. Give us faith to trust Your pruning hand. Give us patience to endure the present trial. Give us hope to rest in the glory to come. Make us content to be conformed to Christ now, that we may share His likeness forever. We believe Your promise: the end will be better than the beginning. Through Jesus Christ our risen and reigning Lord, Amen.

• Adapted from Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896), Dec. 30th reading.