Greetings from the Alpha and the Omega

As the old year fades and a new one begins to unfold, we find ourselves standing in that sacred space between what has been and what is yet to come. It is a moment filled with both gratitude and uncertainty, a time to remember the One who guided our yesterday and to trust the One who holds the future. Into such a tension comes a timeless greeting from Revelation: “Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come.” (Revelation 1:4, NLT)

God identifies Himself not by name, nor by a title, but by His relationship to time, to our time. And astonishingly, He reveals this to us, frail and finite as we are. He is the great I AM (Exodus 3:14) — the One who is present right now, in the middle of our fears, questions, and unfinished stories. When life feels uncertain, remember this simple truth: He is. His presence is constant, even when everything else shifts.

He is also the One “who always was.” Before you took your first breath, His purposes were already at work. Every chapter of your life — the joyful ones, the painful ones — has been woven into His perfect design. Nothing surprises Him, He is the Alpha and the Omega.

And how reassuring it is that He is “still to come.” God is not finished. He is moving ahead of you into the new year, preparing grace for every challenge and beauty for every moment yet unseen. He is the First and the Last.

When we look at the night sky, the vastness of creation pulls us into awe. Light from the Moon reaches us in just over a second; from the Sun, in eight minutes; and the light from the Andromeda Galaxy (our neighbour) has been traveling for millions of years. The scale is staggering. And yet, this same God who commands cosmic distances is intimately near to us. The psalmist captures it: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers . . . what is mankind that you are mindful of them?” (Psalm 8:3–4).

The Creator who holds galaxies together also holds our lives. And while He is beyond time and space, He steps into them, bridging the infinite with the personal. As Psalm 90 teaches, “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by.” And we are invited to “number our days” so that we may gain wisdom.

As we move into a new year, we hold fast to Ecclesiastes 3:11: “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” There is no delay or detour in God’s purpose, as Ellen White noted, “But like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God’s purposes know no haste and no delay” (Desire of Ages, p. 32).

By setting “eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11), God has built a bridge between our fleeting years and His infinite nature. Though we cannot fathom His works from beginning to end, we can rest in the One who is the Beginning and the End of all things.

And so, as you step into the coming year, rest in this truth: the God who is, who always was, and who is still to come surrounds every single moment of your story. He is the God of a new day, a new year, a new life, as in Lamentations 3:22-23:

"Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord."