Devotional for December 4

Revelation 1:8 (NIV) “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’”

 

My nephew, Jasper, asked, “Isn’t that just another name for God?” Well, of course, he was right! We were having lunch at the Huntington Gardens. He recalled correctly Revelation 1:8. Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. God is the beginning and the end, constant throughout time and eternal. We can marvel at His permanence. For the hearers of John’s Revelation, it gave hope for eventual triumph, despite the dangers they faced. It is the same for us now. The letters are common in Western Christian art, often shown to the left and right of Jesus’s head, a fitting symbol and title.

However, I was referring to the pickup group of singers at St. Paul’s that performed the prelude and postlude for church services. We even recorded for future services during the pandemic, with appropriate masking and social distancing.

I remember the reliable leadership and direction of the late Wally Cleaveland, who we still miss.

 —Larry Esposito