Ezekiel 7:6 "An end has come, the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold it comes."

One end has certainly come today with the passing of Pope Francis.  I hope that it is not the end, but the warnings God is giving through Ezekiel here ring true for our world as well. God says through Ezekiel: "Disaster after disaster! ... [T]he time has come, the day is near, a day of tumult ... I will punish you for all your abominations." (Ezekiel 7:5-8). Abominations abound in the world today, and we have been seeing disaster after disaster! So this may well be the beginning of "the end", but that would mean the end of those things, an end to disasters and abominations! 

We pray for Pope Francis' peaceful, eternally happy repose in the arms of Jesus, while we look forward to a new Pope, a new beginning. In the same way, the "ends" we go through are always the beginnings of something new that God wants for us! So while the end is coming, the something new is coming as well! Even as we deal with disaster after disaster, we keep our eyes fixed on God, and know that He is leading us through these disasters so that the world will be ready for the gifts He wants to bestow on us.

While an end has come, and the end is coming, so is the new beginning. God will never leave us when things are ending. In those times, He is always preparing us and leading us to a new and better beginning.