Next Monday, November 1, is All Saints’ Day which is a time to remember and give thanks for the lives of all God’s faithful people who have died and our connections to them.  All Saints’ Day has been described as a time for us to remember our personal saints; people who loved us without condition even when we were not particularly loveable; those people who saw more in us than we saw in ourselves, who cared enough about us to call out of us more than we ever imagined was there (John Buchanan).  One of the readings from the Bible used on All Saints’ Day comes from the book of Revelation and it says in part, "and the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Then he said to me… I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (21:5-6).

Coram Deo is a Latin term that refers to something that takes place in the presence of or before the face of God.  To live Coram Deo is to recognize that whatever we are doing and wherever we are doing it we are in the presence of God.  The God who created us, the Alpha, who breathed into us the very first breath of life, is the one to whom we return when we die, the Omega.  But in between that beginning and that end there is the stuff of life made up of joys, sorrows, pains, failures, crises.  But all of us, every single one of us, no matter what we go through, or experience will be able to stand Coram Deo, we will be in the presence of God.

As you think about your life and whenever you remember those you know and love who have died, those who may be your personal saints, I hope you will think about these words of encouragement, these words of comfort, these words of hope given to us by God.  Remember that you and all of us who need to be hopeful, who need to be healed, who need to know that we are loved and wanted can hear these words of promise and be assured that no matter what God is always, always working to make things new.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

 Faithfully yours,
David+