The Forest for the Trees

12With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. 13She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. 14Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

-1 Peter 5:12-14

I'm getting married. I said, I'm getting married!! After 31 years of singleness I find that I often have to repeat this to myself in order to really believe it. It seems too good to be true. Similarly, Peter has just summed up the breathtaking goal and purpose of the entirety of human history--that God's grace will restore us to his glory. As I say often, the biggest obstacle to the Christian faith is that it seems simply too good to be true. It is beyond what we can wrap our depraved and earthly minds around. So the most powerful and meaningful of phrases become mere religious sentimentality. You can find millions who recite the Nicene Creed from memory every week in church with the same enthusiasm as if they were offering their social security number. They proclaim the resurrection of the dead as if they were already lying in their graves. So Paul wants to remind us once again of the grace that he proclaimed a verse earlier and indeed throughout the book. This grace of God is true. It really is. Let God pull your mind up for a moment. Pull you out of the valley of the vicissitudes of the here and now to see beyond. Let Him show you the forest for the trees.