TheAuthor and the Finisher of or faith

Today is Palm Sunday and in Church today they mentioned when Jesus Hung on the cross and he uttered the words "It is finished" and at that moment the curtain in the temple that seperated the people from Gods prescence was torn. I always LOVED this part just because of the curtain thing, the prescence of the Lord was now able to be experienced by everyone, thanks to Jesus being the ultimate sin sacrifice. But today the phrase "it is finished" made me think of the evening I held Garys hand and told him goodbye for now. The Bible says that God is the author and the FINISHER of our faith. So He created this amazing blank book and named it Gary and the pages were empty and limitless but no matter how long or short the book turned out to be the finale chapter was all ready written and that is eternity with God (to those who believe). I obviously wasnt there when Gary's book was began but I spent 20 years of my life helping to fill in the pages some amazingly happy times, a whole lot of stressful and everything in between times. The pages of his book were influenced by his parents, his brothers all his friends work, but his book was also influenced by living through 911 and watching friends suffer and die and a whirlwind of things that he had no part in but they still influenced his book. In 1995 our books began to share pages we lived life like a braided rope intertwined inametly in eachothers life. The times we stayed up till 4 am debating biblical truths and sharing our thoughts about God and family and life all those effected his book. When he got the call at work that he had cancer all the sudden the 5 of us were on a journey that would bring more pain and anguish in our lives then we could have even fathomed at that moment. When he got the diangosis of terminal he could have sat down and let it happen and the end of his book would have probably come a year or more earlier than it did. Those two years that he batteled cancer all of our books were being written in with such intensity we were all experiencing the anguish of cancer together.Those chapters will effect us till the day our books our finished. Nurses tried to warn me about death it isnt pretty they said people do gross things when they die but I knew no matter I had to have him home. Thankfully they were wrong. The way he died was diametrically opposed to the suffering and pain he went through daily for two long years. He was finally at peace he died quietly and gently and you could tell there was no more pain no more suffering and the tangible cloud of suffering and death that hung over our home and effected us all was in an instant over and we were all at peace. Soon there was a new sadness that of loose that would set in but God for a glorious moment allowed us to take part in his peace the way we took part in his suffering. My book and my girls books continue to be written the pages that follow will undoubtedly be influenced by the man we shared our everything with but it is up to us to fill the pages with things that count. I am so glad that I can skip to the end and think no matter happy, sad or in between I know how my book ends because Jesus put "the end" on it 2000 years ago.