Revelation 1:7-11: a reflection

7Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen. 8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” 9I John, your brother and partner with you in the oppression, Kingdom, and perseverance in Christ Jesus, was on the isle that is called Patmos because of God’s Word and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 10I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet 11saying, “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

As John's Revelation opens, God himself speaks a self-description that anchors everything that follows: I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet; God is the beginning and the end, the one who encompasses all things. And the threefold phrase, who is and who was and who is to come, spans all of time: the present, the past, and the future all belong to him.

Notice what this declaration establishes at the outset of a book full of tumult and vision. Before any of the dramatic events unfold, God announces that he is the Alpha and the Omega, the one who holds beginning and end, who spans past, present, and future. Whatever happens in between, at the start and at the finish, and at every point along the way, stands the God who encompasses it all. History is bracketed by him; nothing falls outside the God who is its beginning and its end.

That is a steadying truth for our own tumultuous times and lives. Whatever we are living through, however uncertain the future, however painful the past, we are held within the span of the God who is the Alpha and the Omega, who was and is and is to come. He was there at the beginning; he will be there at the end; and he holds every moment between. Nothing you face falls outside the God who encompasses all of time. When the present feels chaotic and the future uncertain, anchor yourself in this: he is the Alpha and the Omega, and all of it, past, present, and future, is held in his hands.

Lord, you are the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and was and is to come, the beginning and the end who encompasses all of time. When my present feels chaotic and my future uncertain, and my past weighs on me, anchor me in this: nothing I face falls outside the God who holds beginning and end and every moment between. You were there at the start, you will be there at the finish, and you hold it all in your hands. I rest in you, the Alpha and the Omega.