Peter greets the church as a scattered seed, when he says "the dispersion." We are a people scattered throughout the world like Israel in exile. This means that the church is not settled in the land of canaan. We are sojourners through this world who will experience suffering, testing, and unrest. The assurance is that while we are the scattered seed in this world we are born of the imperishable seed from heaven, and we will persevere by God's preserving power.