CLEVELAND — If it had to end, it had to end like this: Four outs to go and a comfortable lead on a jet stream out to left field.

A Cubs team stared at itself in the mirror and winked.

It couldn’t have come easy. That wouldn’t have been right. Not for this team. Not for this moment.

The Cubs had been trying to unlock the secret that had eluded them for more than a century: How do you win a World Series? They found out in Cleveland, of all places. You do it together.

“The togetherness, the connectedness,” Cubs president Theo Epstein said. “They did it all for each other.”

“This is a special group,” Cubs pitcher Jon Lester said. “We’re going to go down in history for what we just did.”

No kidding. All season long, the Cubs said they were going to make their own history. Give them credit for following through with their promise.

Game 7 was 108 years of frustration and joy jammed into 10 innings and one rain delay. Being a Cubs fan — or hell, a Cubs player, a Cubs executive, a Cubs reporter — is about getting on that rollercoaster and realizing the bumps are part of the ride.

To baseball, the Cubs’ 8-7 win over the Cleveland Indians, which started on Wednesday night and ended early Thursday morning in Ohio, was one of the best Game 7s in World Series history. It had everything you could want in a championship game, including the happy ending for the storybook hero.

“I think we’ll be talking about that game for decades,” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said. “It was incredible.”

Cubs players celebrate on the field after defeating the Cleveland Indians in Game 7 of the World Series at Progressive Field. (Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports)

To Cubs fans, it was more than a game. It was an apotheosis. A divine moment. It was like spending your life devoted to a religion and then getting to shake your deity’s hand.

“No one that watched this game or was at this game will ever forget it,” Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said.

All sports fans give a part of themselves to their teams. Cubs fans are like organ donors, except their organs grow back and they have to donate every year.

Cubs fans are Cubs fans because that’s who they are. Outsiders try to inject reason into their existence. People laugh at their misfortune. But that’s over now. The monkey is off their shoulders and it’s drunk in the corner waiting for the parade to begin.

The Cubs are World Series champions.

“It’s wonderful, it’s fantastic,” celebrity Cubs fan Bill Murray said in the postgame clubhouse. “You believe in something that actually was true and it’s beautiful.”

The Cubs won the World Series.

Doesn’t it feel strange to say? There are no jinxes to worry about, no black cats left. There are no more excuses. The past is history. Finally we can all move on.

This was the Cubs’ first World Series championship since 1908. It won’t be their last.

“We’re going to be really good for a long time,” Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta said. “I’m just excited to be a part of it.”

What will we remember from this game? The final score? That the Cubs led 6-3 until the bottom of the eighth? Will we remember Cleveland outfielder Rajai Davis’ game-tying home run going over the left field wall and the Cleveland fans literally tearing their shirts off in the outfield and the pit in your stomach forming?

Will we remember Javy Baez and David Ross erasing their fielding blunders with home runs?

Will we remember the indestructible Kyle Schwarber singling to start the 10th or World Series MVP Ben Zobrist’s double shooting into left field to score the go-ahead run? I don’t remember Miguel Montero’s RBI single that turned out to be the game-winning hit and I could barely see Kris Bryant throwing out the final batter to end the game.

It’s all a blur now. My eyes are burning, my mind is racing, I’m still struggling to process everything.

“It’s just a fitting end to our season,” Arrieta said. “It was amazing.”

Cubs starting pitcher Jake Arrieta celebrates in the clubhouse after defeating the Cleveland Indians in Game 7 of the World Series at Progressive Field. (Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports)

It was the kind of night where you could wish you could be in 10 places at once. In the stands, on the streets of Wrigleyville, at home with your family, in the dugout. How many people have already made a trip to the cemetery to commune with their dead? How many fans cried, openly and honestly, in front of loved ones and strangers?

Has it hit you yet? Does it feel real?

“Yeah,” Cubs shortstop Addison Russell said. “It hit me when the champagne hit my eyes.”

We’ve talked about this year being THE year so often, with such conviction, this result almost felt too good to be true. In October, the Cubs survived the San Francisco Giants and outlasted the Los Angeles Dodgers, but when Cleveland went up 3-1 with two straight wins at Wrigley Field, the ghosts started stirring again.

But the Cubs have never lost a baseball game in November. They’re 2-0. Put that in your history books.

Other Cubs teams would’ve blown this game. This Cubs team almost did. After Davis homered in the bottom of the eighth and it started looking really dicey, the game got delayed by rain before the 10th inning.

That’s when Jason Heyward called a team meeting.

“That just came to me that we should get together and talk real quick,” Heyward said. “That was the perfect moment for us, the perfect storm, so to speak.”

Heyward said his message was, “We’re awesome. Don’t get down.” Several Cubs told closer Aroldis Chapman they had his back after he gave up the game-tying homer to Davis. Some started clapping for him.

“It was very humbling,” Russell said. “It was a humbling experience. We had all the teammates there. A couple of us poured out our hearts. Whenever you see a man so vulnerable, you can’t help but pick him up.”

How often do you hear a professional athlete talking about their vulnerability after they won a championship? And how about the guy who called the meeting being the high-priced acquisition who has struggled the most? Heyward rose about his own adversity, playing Gold Glove defense and never showing signs of mental fatigue. When the Cubs needed someone to lead, he was there. I don’t know if you can put a dollar figure on that skill.

“J-Hey called the meeting and he had some words to say,” Zobrist said. “He said let’s forget about everything that happened up to this point. Let’s believe we’re going to do this. That’s all needed to be said.”

Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant (left) and shortstop Addison Russell (right) celebrate after winning the World Series. (David Richard/USA TODAY Sports)

Epstein and Hoyer heard part of that meeting and it fired them up. Epstein said he ran back to his seats just in time for Schwarber’s rally-starting hit to the start the 10th inning. Two runs later, everyone could breath easier.

The Cubs even survived a 10th-inning rally by Cleveland. They just couldn’t be denied this time.

So now they’re dancing in the streets of Chicago, where old bones can lie in rest and a new Cubs story can be written starting today.

The Cubs are World Series champions.

Say it out loud. Wear it on your chest, your head, tattoo it on your body. You don’t need to close your eyes to imagine what this feels like, because it actually happened and you were there, somewhere, watching it all with your very own eyes.

“The dream came true,” Bill Murray said. “It’s OK. Dreams come true.”