As I listened to John McCain giving his gracious concession speech last night I realized that, from here on in, his voice will fade, fade, fade away into the ether (where is Geraldine Ferraro?), and Barack Obama’s voice will wax.

But eventually Obama’s own voice will disappear into the slipstream of history, like a ship’s wake that rushes away from us even as we watch from the stern. We are but froth on the sea. (Psalm 39:11).

Policies will come and policies will go, some making things better, some worse. “The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full” (Ecclesiastes 1:6,7).

Those who hoped for a messiah will be disappointed: “That which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (1:9). The consolation of God’s people will be, as always, that God’s will is somehow done, no matter who is the titular head. Though we don’t know the short run we know the long run—“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginnings of the sorrows. … But he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 24:7,8,13).

Last night, through the night, the radio replayed artful soundscapes of the voices of Obama and McCain, but in that Day there will be One voice: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last” (Revelation 22:13). For “All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls away. But the word of the Lord endures forever.”