When will we learn that real bullets kill real people? That victims don’t get up, wash off their red makeup and go back about their business? That their death is final. Their lives are snuffed out. Forever. All choices have consequences, including poor ones.

From the very foundation of the Earth, God knew the nature of humankind. But since He had created them from His great love, He also already knew that He would provide a way for them to return to Him after they had strayed away from His original plan for them.

That way, the only way to a holy God is Jesus Christ. From the very first words of the Holy Bible, “In the beginning,” God’s plan to rescue His creation from destruction was foreshadowed.  We celebrate that plan every year, as we in awe remember that the God who created the universe left His glorious throne to be born to a virgin in a humble stable.

More than that, we read His story in the New Testament: Emmanuel, God with us, as fully God and fully man. Incomprehensible. Marvelous. Awesome. Showing us the way and promising new life through His Holy Spirit, Jesus lived and moved among us.

And when it seemed as though evil had triumphed, by nailing him to a cross to die an excruciating death, behold — death could not hold him to the grave. He arose from the dead in a resurrected body and affirmed to all people once again that he would give them His power to follow Him, live their lives for other and join Him one day in the glories and beauty of heaven.

What a promise, what a savior. And He still calls today, to you and to me: “Come, follow me.”

The choice is ours.

— Anne Palmer

Salisbury