We’re not going to get into an argument about grammar, OK? But please understand that one person’s heart may swell at a well-placed whom while another may dangle participles with abandon. Rest assured, God loves you whether you’re a spelling bee champ or if your phone’s autocorrect function has given up on you.

But I invite you to get nerdy with me for a second. Read the following words of Jesus carefully: “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise” (Mark 9:31).

Now go back and put your finger on the comma. When sin came into the world, death came with it. Death was followed by a period. It was The End. The comma, however, changed everything.

The comma meant that although Jesus would be abandoned, crucified, and left to die, it would not be the end. Jesus would use his dying breath to proclaim, “It is finished,” and then he would rise three days later.

The comma changes everything for you too. Your grandma whose memory has been ravaged by old age? Not the end. Your dad’s cancer treatment, which the doctor moved from palliative to hospice care, does not mean the end. The infant whose still body you held in your arms for way too short a time—it’s not the end. And whether you live another 40 years or 40 minutes, you have an eternity with your Savior to look forward to. (And that’s worth ending a sentence with a preposition.)