Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Born again to a living hope — that phrase assumes something died first. You don't get born again unless the first version of things ran its course, or ran out. This verse isn't decorating an already-good situation with extra hope. It's describing hope arriving specifically through a resurrection, which only makes sense on the other side of something that looked finished.
That's worth noticing if this year has had its share of endings — relationships, plans, versions of yourself you thought you'd be by now. This verse doesn't skip past the ending to get to the hope. It goes straight through it.
Living hope, as opposed to what — hope that's already dead on arrival, hope that's really just wishful thinking dressed up. The claim here is specific: this kind of hope is alive, sourced in something that came back from being genuinely over.
If something in your year genuinely ended, it might be worth asking whether an ending is actually where this kind of hope begins.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.