‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end’

Revelation 22:13

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Revelation 1:8

Well, we are into the New Year. One month almost done! So now saying Happy New Year does not seem to be as relevant as it was a couple of weeks ago.  In this time of beginnings, as the year gets underway, we all try to come to terms with what may be ahead. We try re-establishing our life rhythms in anticipation of the future and we cannot help but wonder what will happen and how we will be.

Last week, I had the privilege of listening to a Japanese-Korean woman preach. She did not speak in either of her two mother tongues, and instead hesitatingly used English. We listened carefully. Her reflection was on the work of God as Creator and she noted the way that God was at work in the very beginning of creation and the summary at the end of the second day, ‘God saw that it was good’. 

She took us on to the closing book of the bible. When considering the phrase ‘I am the Alpha and Omega’ and the words that follow in Revelation, she asked a question; ‘Do you know the Greek Alphabet?’ ‘There are letters in between these two’ she said. ‘Is not God also Beta, Iota, Sigma’? God is inclusive of everything.

Being asked to reflect in this way brought new insight.  If God is first and last, beginning and end, and was and is and is to come, then God embraces all human experience. Maybe we could reflect on Alpha and Omega as a ‘bracket’ description for all our realities. God is deeply present to us irrespective, of the complexity of life and own journeys, and so we are encouraged.  Present to us in love, strength, healing forgiveness and hope.

So, I close not with a New Year greeting, but with a blessing. May God in all our journeys be for us the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, and beginning and end. In this, it is my prayer, we will have peace and hope.

Rev John Gilmore

NCCA President