The verse I selected to go with this photo sounds sort of depressing at first glance: 1 Peter 1:24-25 says,  “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

A real downer, right? Grass doesn’t last—let’s face it. Flowers bloom and die. And people are like grass and flowers?!? Ouch!

This verse is a quotation from Isaiah 40.  And I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m more than the grass and the flowers.

But if we look at how Peter uses this verse in context (always important to do!), we see something pretty cool. Peter is talking about the living hope we have because we are in Christ—and that we should live holy lives. In verse 23, it says, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” So we, as human blades of grass that are set to just wither up quickly, have been BORN AGAIN, but not with the regular seed that doesn’t last, but with an IMPERISHABLE seed, through the word of the Lord, which “endures forever.”

IMPERISHABLE. Is there anything on this earth that is IMPERISHABLE? I can’t think of anything. I mean, building materials, which last longer than our lifetimes, like stone and steel will not last forever. Even the pyramids will someday crumble. But WE are now reborn of an IMPERISHABLE seed? Wow.

How can this be true? People die every day. Obviously, we do wither and our flowers fall. So how could we be “born again… of imperishable”? If we look at all of 1 Peter chapter one, he says through Christ, we can be born again, and we can be with God in Heaven. And that’s forever. Imperishable.

Amazing.

Peter has an encouragement for us on the tail of this revelation: “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:1-3)

So all of us who have accepted Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins, let us rejoice and give thanks that we have moved from the perishable to the imperishable. And then, let us live holy lives, as Peter encouraged us to. And maybe we can let our “light shine before others, that they may see [our] good deeds and glorify [our] Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)