You were born into a story. Your parents were doing things before you got here, and their parents before them. Your family has a history, which forms part of your identity. You are your parents' child, and always will be.

If you're a Christian, you have been born again into a better story. Your Father was doing kind and powerful things before you arrived. He has a history, which defines you. You are a child of God, and always will be.

Malachi is an important part of your Father's story. Since you are His child, it's a vital piece of your story too. Twice the Lord Almighty declares, ″My name will be great among the nations″ (Malachi 1:11). Because He is a ″great king″, His name is to be ″feared among the nations″ (v. 14). God will be worshiped everywhere–″from where the sun rises to where it sets″–by people from all nations (v. 11).

This worldwide worship has already begun. God has you and me in mind when He promises that people from every race and place will praise His greatness. Every weekend we gather with believers throughout the world–Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free, black, white, red, yellow, and brown–to ″declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light″ (1 Peter 2:9).

This worldwide worship will climax in our life to come, when ″a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language″ will praise our glorious Lamb. We will shout, ″Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb″ (Revelation 7:9-10).

If you follow Jesus, this is your story. Your current predicament may make it difficult for you to see this glorious future, but there's no doubt that your life will end in exaltation. You will raise your hands in triumph to praise our great King, with uncountable new best friends. All this time, when it seemed your life was stuck in neutral, you were actually moving towards this cosmic celebration. You were on the right side of history all along.

This is God's story, and He graciously invites you and me to participate. He doesn't want to hold this victory party without you. He wants you there. He wants you now. When we assemble in our humble little churches, we worship with ″thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly″, with the whole worldwide church, with ″God, the Judge of all″, and with ″Jesus the mediator of a new covenant″ (Hebrews 12:22-24). What a story, and it's yours! Claim it.