Lectionary Gleanings (11/22/11) – 2nd Crack at Life
1 Peter 1:13-25
“You have been born anew . . . through the living and abiding word of God.” Followers of Jesus are twice born people. We are born once unto death and once unto life. The first life, like grass, withers. Aging confirms that. I am not yet fifty and I think of I have shrunk an inch in recent years. Add the slightest congestion to my day and I’m breathless by the time I get 32 pound Whit from the bottom of the stair to his crib. Whether one’s years on earth are many or few, his years are lived in age that is fading. Life is largely a process of decay and the things in the age of decay cannot be relied upon, at least not eternally.
But God in His Graciousness gives us another crack at life. We are born again through Jesus. And this life abides forever. Unlike a flower or grass, it endures. I am one of those that does not spend much time pondering what eternal life actually looks like. I just trust that given the blessings I’ve experienced in this life, the one to come will be infinitely better. There, in
whatever eternal life is, simple pleasures will be more intensely enjoyed. And what might one of those pleasures look like? A morning without a new creak!