1 Peter 1:3-9: Entropy In Reverse

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. - 1 Peter 1:3-9

Life is like springtime, which inevitably gives way with the passing of days, to summer, fall and winter. We, like the grass and the flowers, burst forth in a loud, tumultuous display of vigor, only to fade and wither. As cynics would have it, we are born to die. Life proceeds in spurts, fits and starts, from that initial moment inexorably to death. 

Peter, though, speaks of another birth which God gives us. "...he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade." Not born to die, but born to live. 

Even if we have this new life, we still act like we are dying. Not only is the pattern that we are used to-that we see all around us-it is the what we feel in our own body. Paul says, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." (2 Cor. 4:16) No matter how we feel, if God's Spirit is at work within us, we are actually becoming more alive. That is the paradox. And one day, God will make our body catch up the renewal he's already done in our soul. That is the inheritance-the entropy in reverse-that Peter mentions that "is kept in heaven for" us.  So I am wondering, what does it mean to live as if it won't all eventually break, but rather it will eventually all be whole.