by Rev Steve Nickodemus

Birthday gifts that never grow old.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“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…”
1 Peter 1:3b-4a

My young friend appears to be having the perfect birthday! Surrounded by beautiful gifts, friends, and family on a beautiful day, she is digging into a piece of delicious birthday cake. Can it get any better than this?

Well, when you are 5 years old, maybe not, but as anyone who has had a few more birthdays can attest, birthday gifts wear out. Gifts are outgrown and discarded. Friends, and family, pass away and leave us.

There is another birthday that is not like that. Peter writes that God has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and He has given us an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade!  What kind of a birthday might this be? It is a birth that does not end in death, but in an eternal party that never ends!

This birth is the new birth that Jesus speaks of with Nicodemus in John 3…a birth of water and the Spirit…a birth renewed by faith in the Son of God daily. A birth that gives not temporary life, measured in a few short years, but a birth that gives eternal life firm in what our Lord Jesus Christ has given us…a pardon for our sins and the hope of glory.

I am glad that we can celebrate birthdays here on earth, but I am looking forward to the Great Celebration…the joy that never ends…the Feast that is yet to come. For you and I have been given the great Gift of salvation in Jesus and a joy that never ends. Happy Birthday to you and to all who will receive His great birthday Gift!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado