A Living Hope
1 Peter 1:3, ” 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Emily Dickinson wrote, “Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm.”
While there is real beauty in her words, she is not writing about the same thing that Peter writes about. What he speaks of is something much sweeter. Miss Dickinson is speaking about human hope, it’s something God created us with, a certain perseverance and joy in trials looking forward to a time when things will be better. It’s that thought “Maybe things won’t always be like this.”
Peter is speaking about Jesus. He is the one who arose. He sings the song of salvation. He never stops because He died and rose and never dies again. His voice which speaks “Peace!” Is the sweetest song on earth and it continues on even the sorest storm and even in the greatest gale. Nothing can stop it. For it isn’t a “maybe things will be better” it’s “I know that my redeemer lives.” It’s “He lives and grants me daily breath, He lives and I shall conquer death.” It’s the certainty “shall I grieve or could the head, rise and leave his members dead?” It’s proof, a sure knowing, an unbreakable, undimmable, unstoppable hope which lives on forever because He lives. We have been born again to this hope. We have been connected to it in Baptism. Christ beats eternal in the Christian breast.
In Christ
Pastor Ude