“ ‘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).

I have often read this as “the Alpha and then the Omega.” That is not what it says and the meaning is significantly changed by reading it that way. We live in a world governed by time. For us one thing follows another. We experience life as a time-line. Something happens now followed by something that happens later.

Jesus operates outside of our world governed by time. He sees everything, but not from our perspective because He is eternally present. That is a difficult concept for us to grasp but it is true. The practical implication of that is profound. He is the Alpha and the Omega—both at the same time. While we experience life as experiences that follow one another, He sees both the beginning and the end together.

What that means for us is that while we are experiencing the beginning of a stage in our lives and wait for the end to come Jesus sees them both together. As we see the beginning of something He already sees the outcome. As we see the beginning of a stage of life He already sees the end of it. We can accurately say that as we wait for the future He is already there. What an important truth that is for all of us. We have hope because the God of our present is also the God of what, to us, is future.

For us who live in a world governed by time we serve a God who stands above time and while we live in the present He is Lord of our present and our future. Thank God He is the Alpha AND the Omega, the Beginning AND the End. While we wait for the future He is already there.