““I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.””
Revelation 1:8 NLT
This verse is a direct message from God Himself, recorded by John to establish irrefutably God’s absolute and eternal status in His created universe. It appears between a verse about Jesus’ second coming and John informing us about his exile on Patmos. But its content is so profound that it can stand alone in any context.
The Alpha and Omega, two letters from the Greek alphabet. One at the beginning and one at the end. They portray a message of completeness, something confirmed with the statement that God has always been around. In our human thinking, bounded by time, the concept of eternity is something that really is mind boggling. We are imprisoned by our clocks. We get up at a certain time. Our daily events are all timed. Seconds tick by, unstoppable. We celebrate our birthdays every year. We record the time and date of our births, marriages and deaths. Young people behave as thought they will live forever, but the oldies amongst us become aware of their mortality, a state compounded by increasing aches and pains and visits to medical facilities. But God lives outside of time. He lives in another universe, Heaven itself. The phrase in our verse today, “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come”, defines His eternal state.
As humans, we have a tendency to look back, into our “was”. Our lives are shaped by what has gone on before in our lives. Choices and decisions made in years past define who we are now. And what the rest of our lives will be, our “still to come”. But it is not possible to apply the same concepts to our eternal God. Living in an eternal state is totally incomprehensible to us. And it certainly confuses the evolutionists and educationalists in our societies, who try to apply time-based principles to an eternal, timeless universe. A universe created by “the Alpha and the Omega”, the “Almighty One”.
So where does this verse fit into the pilgrim’s mindset? It once again reminds us of the God we worship. We can only wonder about this Eternal Creator, who cared so much for us, that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for us, as a sacrifice for our sins, and restore to us the status He designed into us from the very beginning. What else can we do other than praise Him forever?
Father God. We join together in praise to You. You are the Almighty God and our loving Heavenly Father. We are so grateful. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 