Inspirational: How It Started… and How It Ended

By: Linda Kirby / WGON 3.30.26

Holy Week began with palm branches waving and people cheering for the kind of Savior they wanted. It ended with an empty tomb and the kind of Savior we all needed. Between the shouts of Hosanna and the silence of Saturday, God was rewriting the story of the world. And He still does the same in our lives today—taking the weeks that begin in confusion, fear, or expectation, and ending them in ways only Heaven could design.

Jesus began the week riding into the city while crowds praised Him with loud voices and high hopes. They believed they knew what He had come to do. But He knew the road ahead. He knew the cost. He knew the cross was waiting. Still, He moved forward. We begin our own weeks the same way—full of plans, assumptions, and expectations. Yet God often has a different path in mind, one far better than the one we mapped out. We ride into our week with our ideas, but He is the One who will be triumphant over every plan.

Jesus ended His week with what looked, to the world, like defeat. A cross. A tomb. Silence. But Heaven saw something different. Heaven saw victory unfolding. Heaven saw redemption being written. Heaven saw a plan so perfect that no human mind could have imagined it. We often face moments that feel like loss, disappointment, or disaster. We struggle, we question, we wonder why things didn’t go the way we hoped. But then—slowly—light breaks through. Doors open. Peace returns. And we realize God was working a better ending all along.

Jesus gave us the greatest gift of love the world has ever known—a gift no human being could have offered on their own. He endured suffering to save us from our sins and to keep us from eternal separation from God. Our hardships may feel heavy, but His were heavier. Our struggles may feel long, but His sacrifice was eternal. And just as His story ended in glory, ours will too. When the last chapter is written and the final page turns, unimaginable joy will be waiting.

How it started is never the whole story. God is the God of how it ends.

John 16:20–22 (KJV)

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy… And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”

So if your week begins in sorrow, confusion, or silence—remember how it ended. Joy is coming.