Alpha Omega
Alpha ~ Omega.
Well, I’m glad we had that chat last night.
I can see you now.
Today has been the best day,
A very marked improvement on recovery.
Yes, the first night in twelve days.
That is good.
And I thank you for that.
It took me awhile last evening, praying to you,
And quite simply refusing to accept the turn off [i] in the Bible.
Or in any other sacred text.
If I take all of the sacred texts in the history of humankind,
I see the comparisons and the contrasts of
every sacred interpretation of you.
A bolt out of the blue last night!
Because you are simply way beyond anything
for any of these sacred texts.
Including biblical texts
to measure up to.
You are the creator.
You are the alpha and the omega.
You are the first and the last.
You are the beginning and the end
And yet there is no ending.
I am glad to have biblical texts to comfort me.
But I do not take them too seriously.
That is a very dangerous thing to do.
If I look at scripture.
I see the beauty of literature.
Of English literature.
And this is the experience in every language.
Every religion will be in the same situation.
They will each be expressed in the beauty of their own language.
But it dawned on me last night,
that there is not one single description in scripture
that truly captures the beauty of the universe,
The sheer magnitude of your creation.
It just does not do it!
This does not undermine my faith.
It strengthens my faith.
If I try to restrict living…
Strictly within the narrow confines of descriptive writing;
All the gospels, letters and epistles on the one hand,
All the scrolls, books, parchments on the other hand
that make up the thirty-nine or so books of the Old Testament,
Then, let me put it this way...
You are not someone that I would wish to know.
I’ll say that again.
You are not someone I wish to know.
Yet, I also fully understand that incredible statement
This is the Royal Law
The Lively Oracles of G-D
Last night, I saw a Whale high in the sky
above Windsor
Now that is beauty way beyond the Word
Yet it perfectly encapsulates the Word.
[i] turn off: when people decide the cure is to throw bucketfuls of scripture verses at me, or any sacred texts. It turns me off and puts paid to listening to that inner voice, call it what you will. On yer bike!
In that most secret place
on the riverbank
2:20 am, Saturday 29 April 2023
dictation
and completed
Monday 8 May 2023
8 May 2023
All Rights Reserved
© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.