The way of the eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden. Amen. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We ask you, please come and meet us with your grace because you are good and you are God. We love you. We belong to you. You've rescued us from death and you brought us into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You brought us into your kingdom. You brought us into your family. Help us to live as your beloved children. Help us to live with you as our father. Help us to live as good citizens of your kingdom, taking care of one another, being responsible for each other, enjoying all of the rights of a true adopted son or daughter of you, God, our Father. May we be praised and glorified. We thank you so much. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So gosh, here we are. Second letter of St. Peter. Chapter one, there's a line in here that is, well, the whole thing obviously is very important, but here is St. Peter at one point in verse one, sorry, chapter one in verse four, I think it is here. Peter says this, he says, by which God has granted to us his precious and very great promises that through these, you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion. And here's the line and become partakers of the divine nature. This line is absolutely critical. It is also incredible. It is absolutely incredible. What is Peter talking about? He's talking about the fact that when we are baptized, when we are made into God's adopted sons and daughters, we become partakers of the divine nature, basically become a new creation. And I mean, we've all heard that we become temples of the Holy Spirit, right? Of course, we've heard that. One of the things that means, of course, is that God abides because God's presence abides in his temple. Another thing it means is that what was the temple for? It wasn't just for the presence of God to be there. It was for the place of worship, right? So if we're temples of the Holy Spirit, it also means that we're meant to be a place of worship. That's why I believe St. Paul had said, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and beloved to your spiritual worship, right? So your body's a temple, not only God's presence, also worship there, but also if you have the Holy Spirit of God, then the Holy Spirit of God is united to you in a unique way that you share in the divine nature. Now, as a human being, as made in God's image and likeness, you are a beloved creature of God, of course. But as one who's been baptized, you've been transformed and you actually don't just have a human nature. Yes, it's basically God gives you a share in his divine nature. We're not like Jesus in the sense that Jesus is one divine person with a human and divine nature, but we get to participate, get to share in the divine nature. The example I'd always like to give is the example of Pinocchio and Geppetto. I'm not sure if I used this this year. Shoot, it's been 353 days, 354 days, crying out loud. But here is Geppetto, right? He's the marionette maker. He's the creator and he loves Pinocchio. He makes Pinocchio in his image and likeness. He gives him arms and legs like Geppetto. He can talk like Geppetto and walk like Geppetto, but he's not Geppetto's son. He's Geppetto's beloved creature. He's Geppetto's beloved creation. Now Geppetto loves him, of course, but in order for Pinocchio to be able to look at Geppetto and say, not just my maker, but my father, what has to happen? In order for Geppetto to look at Pinocchio and not just say my creation, but my son, what has to happen is that Pinocchio has to have the same nature as Geppetto. And so what happens? He becomes a real boy, right? In the course of the story. And this is the same thing with us.