The 2nd Letter of Peter speaks to us of the patience of the Lord, a patience that is natural to the one who views all things from an eternal perspective.
Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,†but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.His patience is an important part of his plan to save us from our sinfulness and to lift us up toward his level of holiness as far as we are willing to go. Yet, there will come a time when the Lord will bring an end to the drama of earthly life. St. Peter expands upon ancient apocalyptic literature to speak of something reminiscent of an event he could not possibly have known about, a time when the sun goes nova and the earth is vaporized in its wake, a time most likely billions of years from now.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.St. Peter selected imagery that expresses the finality of the end times. If all is dissolved by fire, even the very elements (a concept that is difficult to reconcile with basic chemistry, unless you consider temperatures that are high enough to turn everything into plasma), then it is obvious that none of man's projects, including his existence, will survive. Although the time of the sun's nova is likely to be astronomically remote, compared to the mere 200,000 years or so of Homo Sapiens' existence, it is helpful to reflect on the futility of earthly life that is implied by such events. This Peter does.
Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire. But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.This last gives us a hint of something to be hoped for. Yet St. Peter's vision of a new heavens and a new earth is not simply another place in a slowly dying universe. No, what he is referring to is a new universe altogether, a universe that will be inhabited by people who have become totally reunited with their creator, a universe where the law of increasing entropy no longer applies, a universe that will last forever, a universe that God invites us all to enter.
Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.This is what God wants for us. St. Peter simply tells us it is what we should want, too.