This painting seemed to evolve on it's own. Christ is shown and presented as the Alpha and Omega. The hand in front represents the hand of the Father showing the world the title of his Son. He holds the Hebrew letters Aleph and Tav the first and last letters in Hebrew. The Hebrews read right to left, thus the First and the Last. These letters are first in the proper order in the front because Christ came first to the Jews, thus the letters in front represent the Jewish followers of Christ. If you read the Hebrew Scriptures there are several places that God has picked to place this grouping of letters. This is not even a word in Hebrew but God picked specific places to put these in the Scriptures to point to Christ. The Letters in the back represent the Gentiles that are being saved "having been grafted into the vine". The fire like branches that come off Christ are there because Scripture says that "Our God is an all consuming fire" The small round objects in the branches of the fire represent the souls of men that are drawn to Christ. The Red and orange spikes that are around the head of Christ represent a spiritual crown of thorns. The images on His forehead represent the fact that He is the son of David, Son of God, One that was raised up as Moses raised up the serpent in the desert so that all who see and believe will be healed.