Circles and Hope

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 at 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.