#Alpha and Omega

"Do not be afraid! I AM the First and the Last!"1

"Of Him, through Him, to Him are all things! To Him be the glory forever, Amen."2

I've avoided Revelation for 10 years. It used to be one of my favorite books. By studying it, I knew all there was to know about the end of the world. I could pinpoint with unerring accuracy the precise sequence of events that followed one after another once the apocalyptic ball got to rolling. Then my perfect applecart overturned and I've had no idea at all what the end time would look like. But that's not my point in writing this. I decided to read Revelation again, but this time, not for the purpose of knowing what Revelation was saying about world events, but about Him who is being revealed in its sometimes-strange text.

So, I was reading Revelation 1. "...don't be afraid! I and the first and the last the Alpha and Omega.” How could Jesus being the First and the Last have anything to do with fearlessness? If we were to hear His voice, perhaps he would say something like this:

I AM the First: I was there when that one sperm and only that one, was accepted into the ova that is now your other half. It was I who selected the timing, the precise maturation of that ova, the specific sperm which was accepted. I chose the DNA which was in each; the 23 chromosomes of your mother and 23 of your father. I chose your parents' parents and theirs before them and theirs before them. You are the accumulation of my plan; the outworking of a long blue-print that was intended from all eternity in My love for you. You are perfect just the way you are--all your quirks and foibles, all your wonderful ways of interacting--these are but expressions of my intention to weave you into my tapestry. As I said about the blind man: "neither his parents nor he have sinned that He is blind--it is so My glorious plan may be revealed in him, and so are you.”

“Don't be afraid! I am the End. As I was your Beginning, so I am your End. That last breath of yours will be held within my breath. Your last heartbeat will be in synch with Mine. I will hold that which is you in Myself. I know I've not been very clear exactly what happens after that last breath, that last pulse, but I will assure you: I AM your End. In Me, you can rest assured that you will live, for I am alive! I am alive now and forevermore, even though I too drew a last breath and my heart stopped. As I was in My Father, so you will be (and are) in Me. In fact, just as I said through Paul, “Of Me, through Me, to Me are all things. I am not only there at your beginning and end, I am there in everything in between.

I AM! Don't be afraid! I truly exist; I am Real. You are in Me and I in you; and both of us are in the Father all bound up with My Spirit. Nothing, not anything; not anybody; not any germ or physical illness, deformity; not any aberrance of personality or thought can be greater than I. You were created in the image of My plan for you--an exact representation of My desire for you. Your life is and always will be, to the glory of My Father. Lay back in the hammock of your life; have a glass of lemonade as you toast in the sun and think about that. Let it in; let it sink deep into that place where you are who you truly are. Let the fear be sweated out of you in the realization of this reality--this reality that is Me.

I AM YOUR First and YOUR Last and all YOUR in-betweens.

Ah, Lord Jesus, Holy Father; how truly wondrous You are!1 We lay our fears at Your feet in confidence that You are our First and Last. So may you always be.

5/22/09

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