God always has been. There is no beginning and no ending with God. God says “I am the Alpha and the Omega” as a way of illustrating that, but a better illustration is simply God’s name when Moses asked on Mt Sinai who he was talking to, and God said “I am”. The abbreviation for God, YHWH (or YHVH) has within it the letters for these Hebrew words – “is”, “was”, and “shall be”. How awesome is that?

Our human brains can’t really understand this. We can’t understand how something could exist before the Big Bang. We want beginnings. We can’t comprehend eternity. But just because we can’t understand it doesn’t mean it isn’t so.

Then again, “Jesus” isn’t Jesus’ name. That is the English version. The closest way of saying his name as it was pronounced is Yashua. There are several variants, including Yeshua and Yahshua. Why it got changed to Jesus when there is a perfectly acceptable English equivalent of Joshua is beyond me.

When I was very young we had a dog that I got to name. I was three. I don’t remember the dog at all, but I do remember the name. I named him “Joshuma,” and I can only assume that name came to me from God. I can only assume that was a three year old’s interpretation of “Yashua”. Or perhaps I did say “Yashua” to my parents and “Joshuma” is what they understood. It was pronounced JOSH-you-muh.

This is a perfect name for a dog for a child. Dogs are best friends. Dogs are protectors. Dogs teach unconditional love. These are all the same qualities of Yashua, also known as Jesus.

Here’s the funny part. Sometimes when I’m typing quickly on my Kindle, it will autocomplete. Very often when I try to type “Jesus”, my Kindle supplies “He is”.

Make of this what you will. These were my thoughts early this morning.