We all have dreams. Things we would love to do. Places we would love to visit, or live. People we would love to be. Lives we would love to live. Lives where our words do not hurt. Lives where kindness and forgiveness flow from us like a never ending stream. Lives full of joy and promise that encourage those are around.
But dreams don’t come true, at least that's what people say.
Anyone who has even made a New Year’s resolution knows that.
So, instead of taking the small steps that we can make, we give up. We say, "I know I won’t do it anyway, so I may as well not try."
But what if dreams can be built?
What if it happens slowly, brick by brick?
What if lives can be changed?
What if hearts can be softened, even if it takes years to do so?
The promise we have of the scriptures is not only that we are saved from a final judgement where we are called into account for our rebellion. The promise of the scripture is that God has not left us in our rebellion, but has come to make us into the people we know we are meant to be.
He has come not simply to forgive, but to change.
To shape.
To mould.
To recreate what we have destroyed.
To build us into a spiritual house in which he himself will dwell.
“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4–5, TNIV)