I like circles. Hula-hoops. Rings. Pi. Domes. Time travel. Except that’s more of a spiral…
When I am embarrassed or flustered, I go in circles. Literally. I’ll do a little spin, adjust my hair, and be back to business. Like a new start.
But really, circles don’t have starts. And that’s what I really like. Fresh beginnings. Forgiveness. History.
And I like endings. Hope has to do with endings. Fulfillment. Consummation. Happily ever after. Completion.
The thing I don’t like about beginnings and endings is that there has to be time in between. Waiting. Remembering. Continuing. Perseverance. Diligence. It isn’t that I really dislike those things; they’re just hard.
It seems that for hope to exist, time has to be linear. We can’t go in circles. Chesterton described insanity as a circle. Think about it. Most of our natural laws follow the principle of cause and effect. Order.
And God had the wisdom to describe Himself not as a circle, but as Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, First and Last, Author and Finisher. He it is that gives us starts. Quickening. Initiation. (We love Him because He first loved us.) And He is there at the end, pulling us to completion. To joy and peace. Because of Him we have an ending, and it is happy.
To God be all glory,
Lisa of Longbourn
Lisa of Longbourn 
Lisa,
Rich thought, dear saint. You are right in seeing that God–the God we meet in the Bible and in the person of Jesus–is not a God of “circles.” (It strikes me that such a God would be much more the God of karma than the God of Christ!)
God’s self-description as Alpha and Omega, First and Last, Author and Finisher is far more than wisdom–although He is, most clearly, wise. It is not that He has described Himself in the wisest way He could; He merely reveals Himself to us as He really is . . . and we come to see how amazing He is.
The idea that He is ever there, at the end, pulling us to completion, drawing us to deeper joy and peace . . . what a rich picture of the life held out to us in Christ Jesus.
Thank you for these thoughts.
Grace,
Summathetes
Thank you!
To God be all glory,
Lisa of Longbourn