The Alpha and the Omega

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Eccl 3:11)>

“In the beginning…” These three words magically transport us back in time to the birth of the universe. We find this in the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings that traces the carbon footprint of man on earth right to the Garden of Eden. Not just that. It is also a book of creation that has driven evolutionists up the wall and many a scientist into despair. And who could have performed this inimitable act of creation any better than our heavenly Father. Moreover, He reserved the best for last when He created man in His own image. What a sobering thought to know that He thinks so highly of us. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4)

Our rational minds tell us that everything must have a beginning. We do not need a degree in critical thinking to do that. Logic tells us that something has to start somewhere. A Chinese proverb says that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” But then, we must not forget that there is also an end to everything, just like the end of a journey. Life then can be considered a series of arrivals and departures being played out in many different ways from the moment we gasp our first breath of air as a newborn babe till the day we take our last breath. We are all merely pilgrims, traversing this earth, waiting for the day when our number will be called up, when our expiry date is due. Isn’t that another sobering thought?

As Christians, we should take heart because we believe that death is not the end of the journey for us, contrary to what others think. Unlike our bodies, our souls do not have an expiry date. We who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb have eternal life awaiting us in heaven. Even though our mortal bodies perish and return to the ground as dust, our souls will live on in eternity with all the saints in heaven. Thank God that He has made this possible because we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.