To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:6-8 ESV).
As you may be aware, Texas is in the midst of a long series of triple-digit days over 100 degrees and nearly no rain. We are very dry in our area of North Central Texas. It has provided an interesting contrast from this past spring when we observed the “super-bloom” of wildflowers. Then everything was green, and flowers of all types and colors bloomed in every field. Now we are green with a brown vista everywhere we look. There are difficulties with the power grid, water is scarce if you are not on your own well. Yet, I am drawn to the majesty of God in His creation. It is much bigger than any of us could imagine. This is the root of the Apostle John’s declaration in our reading today.
In the book of Revelation, God wants us to embrace a world bigger than the one that ends at what we see and experience in this moment of time. We learn to see a bigger world because God speaks and reveals that he is “the Alpha and the Omega, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” It is a humbling experience to stand in the presence of the Lord Almighty. Before this God, we learn to know our true selves. God is the Almighty, and by comparison, we are small. Regardless of our strengths or weaknesses, we must learn to see ourselves standing before the Lord.
Yet when our eyes are opened to God’s being God Almighty, our world becomes a big place. We gain more than a glimpse of the present moment. We learn to live in the expectation of Jesus’ coming again to make all things new. Every moment is filled with longing for the day when God, in Christ, will bring the fullness of his salvation to every part of his creation.
Today, as with every day, we are invited to live in the presence of the Lord God Almighty. His promise to come again can fill our day with the prayer “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10).