Ends and Beginnings
"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
"In my beginning is my end." So T.S. Eliot begins the East Coker segment of his Four Quartets. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1888, T.S. Eliot became the most discussed American poet in the early half of the 20th Century. Two years before his death, in 1948, he received the Order of Merit from King George the VI. The same year he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was truly a great thinker and poet. If you enjoy thoughtful poetry, T.S. Eliot is a must read.
If the phrase, "In my beginning is my end", sounds pessimistic to you, please understand that T.S. Eliot wants you to grasp the reality of "a lifetime burning in every moment". Further, he concludes the poem with the reverse and hopeful statement, "In my end is my beginning."
Alpha and Omega. The One who is and was and is to come. God, who is eternal, who always was and always will be, has created us to live eternally as well. The moment we are conceived, our entire life is laid out before us, in a foreknowing, not fatalistic way. The end of our days is there at the start. But so also, when we come to the final moment of life, to the end, then we discover that in this end is our new beginning - eternal life! Praise be to God!