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Mary Alice McGinnis

May 13 | 1 Peter 1:1-9


 

DAILY READING

 

REFLECTION


What is in Your Attic?

by Mary Alice McGinnis

What comes to mind when you think of an attic? I can picture in my mind’s eye the dark, musty, walk-in attic from the home I lived in until I was eight years old. I can still picture the white peeling paint on the door of that attic, the porcelain doorknob that barely turned, the creaky hinges. Upon opening the door, the dim lighting was less than inviting, and the smell of dusty old things wafted through our nostrils.


And yet, on the occasion when we had to go to the attic to find something stored there, it would often result in a prolonged quest. Searching for the proposed item by systematically opening box upon box was time-consuming enough.

But then the distraction of reminiscing about rediscovered treasured memories would last for hours. My grandparents’ deteriorating travel trunk that they brought to the United States when they immigrated. The baby dolls that I refused to sleep without when I was a toddler. The faded scrap book of photos from when my parents and their siblings were young.


Our attic was like one giant room of keepsakes that we hoped somehow to preserve. Today’s scripture tells us of some things that God has given us, stored up for us and preserves for us.


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.


Our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has first given us NEW BIRTH! Not because we have done anything to earn it, but IN HIS MERCY!


How is this new birth different from our first birth? Our first birth granted us life into this world and into sin, but ultimately each of us will surely not escape the clutches of death. But God has granted us a new life - “begotten us again” as one translation says.


This NEW BIRTH is into a LIVING HOPE! Why? Because it was won for us by the One who conquered death, Jesus Christ, the resurrected One!


Picture yourself now entering a different kind of room – one full of all the fullness of God’s treasures. This room contains wonders upon wonders, and it is all yours as an inheritance. Instead of the darkness of regret or painful memories from the past, there is the brightness of having been granted God’s LIVING HOPE. There is no musty smell of old things, but the vibrant aroma of fresh life that awakens your senses – like lilacs in the spring. None of what you have been granted will ever rot like old clothing, decompose, or decay, or even fade like wilted flowers or old photographs.


This inheritance is KEPT in heaven for YOU! God is the one who is shielding us through faith in Jesus by HIS POWER – not by our own power. He is safeguarding it, storing it all up and protecting it for just the right time – the coming time when all the fullness of our salvation will be fully revealed.


Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!


PRAYER PRACTICE

Lift your heart and voice in grateful praise to our God and Father, Jesus our Resurrected Savior and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate.




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