“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”  Rev. 21:6

There is no end to our beginnings.

We start over again year after year, week after week, day after day.

The steadfast sun rises.

The calendar pages turn.

The toast is lifted — cheers!

And we’re off once more, beginning again.

This is what it is to live.

There is an end to our beginnings.

We hurry through our days, and weeks, and years.

The final curtain closes.

The last chapter concludes.

The finish line is crossed — glory!

And our one end becomes a grand genesis.

This is what it is to die.

There is no end to The Beginning.

Always and forever Alpha-Omega – who was, and is, and is to come.

The Self-Existent One.

Limitless in scope.

Unbound by space and time — yes!

Forever before the beginning, and after the end, forever.

This is what it is to be God.

“Even now this is beginning to happen.” 1 Kings 14:14

Most beginnings are unseen —

the seed germinating in the ground,

the repair of a muscle under the skin,

the cells of a new life forming in the womb.

We are often unaware of beginnings,

but they are happening all around us,

all the time.

New Year’s Day seems like a momentous event as we let go of a past and welcome a future.  But, truly, New Year’s Day is just a day.  We don’t receive the whole new year at once.  All we get is 1/366th of it. Each day is a new beginning — each one a momentous event.

A prophecy was given in 1 Kings 14:14, foretelling of a time when God would uproot Israel and send her off into exile. The fulfillment of that prophecy wouldn’t come for another 300 years, yet, according to God, it was starting to happen, even then.

So when it seems like nothing is going on

and you’re stalled out in the middle of nowhere,

believe that there is a current moving below the surface

and, even now,

something is beginning

to happen.

This is about the time New Year’s resolutions start to flounder. Unexpected things come up, like a nasty cold that puts you on the sidelines for a few days. Or an early appointment messes up your work-out schedule. Or somebody brings a box of doughnuts to the office. No matter how earnest our decisions to implement good changes, it doesn’t take much to throw us off our game.

Not so with God.

When He says His eyes are going to be on us “from the beginning of the year to its end” (Deuteronomy 11:12), that means every single day, the whole year through.  No days off, no forgetfulness, no floundering.

He is watching us all day today, and will continue tomorrow and the day after that.  We will still be in His sights on March 9, and June 27 and September 19.  By the time December 31st rolls around, He will still be watching.  Not once does the Lord our God remove His watchful eyes from His people.

This is not a raised eyebrows “don’t-misbehave-because-I’m-watching-you” kind of look.

It’s more like a loving “I-can’t-take-my-eyes-off-of-you” gaze.

It seems God is resolved to keep His eye on us this year.

Maybe our best resolution would be to keep our eyes on Him all year, too.

When I was in elementary school, every fall my history book started with Christopher Columbus discovering America. I thought the world began in 1492. Being a good Methodist Sunday school girl, I knew Jesus walked the earth sometime before that. Like maybe 1482. So….not in America. Needless to say, my concept of time was a bit skewed when I was in 3rd grade.

Years later, when teaching history to my own children, I was shocked to find that the timeline we put up on our wall measured several feet from 1492 to present.  But the years prior to 1492 wrapped around our whole house. Time has been around a long time.

The Bible’s opening words are, “In the beginning…”

But long before God said, “Let there be light,” there was an eternity stretching out across the formless surface of the deep. God was there before the beginning began.

January is a good time to think about beginnings. A new year, a new journal, a new budget book, a new list of goals.  New possibilities, new opportunities, new challenges.

Shall we begin?