Guns Kill People

They do.  Let’s stop pretending they are innocent bystanders.  Guns cut, rip and destroy life.  They have since they were first forged.  That is their purpose.  Bullets tear through the flesh of the guilty and the innocent, the young and the old.  Guns kill people without concern or remorse and without conscience.  They do so without concern of the justification, the reason or the outcry.

Guns kill people.

So do knives, swords and axes.  They have been doing so for thousands of years.  They have been doing so since mankind first discovered they could use them to tear into flesh, and cease life.  Knives kill people

Rocks kill people.

Rocks, as well as blunt objects like bats, and maces and sticks kill people.  They crush bones with vicious brutality.  Inanimate objects that triumph over life itself when wielded with wicked intent.

Rocks kill people and always have…

Since the very first child of mankind took his rock to spit the skull of his very kin.  He spilt the blood of his innocent brother and that very blood screamed out from the ground of its injustice to the God of all creation.

Yet, our creativity with tools of the macabre do not stop there.  We are the masters of dealing death.  We are the artists of atrocities.  We invent with a passion new and more brutal means of murder.

Planes kill people; planes with the help of tall building.

Money kills people.  Riches and wealth that bring an illusion of power kills people.  Money has been killing people with a passion unmatched since it found it could sway the frail hearts of humanity.  Debt kills people; sometimes rapidly but more often slowly.  Poverty kills people.  It strangles the life out of the oldest and the youngest with a heartless efficiency.

Depression kills people.  Hopelessness does too.  Abortion kills the youngest.  Neglect kills the oldest.  Lies kill people.  Hate kills people.  Ignorance kills people.

Weapons of minor and mass destruction destroys all it can.  We insist on amassing them while arguing and fighting to keep them out of the hands of our enemies.  After all, they can’t be trusted with them and we can!

…Can’t we?

Splitting atoms kills people with devastating insanity.  We rip them apart and unleash a fury of unsurpassed fire and rage.  We kills by the millions and justify it by saying it was to save countless millions more.  We convince ourselves that they are deserving and we remain innocent.

But innocence has long been lost by us all.

It was lost when the first rock in the hands of the first child of mankind found it’s purchase.  And Abel’s blood still cries out from the ground from where it was spilt.  It still cries out to the Creator of the Universe to not turn a blind eye to our utter loss of innocence.

…and the Creator replies.

Nails kill people; long spikes designed to fix flesh to roughly hewn wood.  It digs into the flesh that has already felt the tear of the whip laced with bone and glass shards.  It pins it’s dying subject without concern for the agony brought about by the cruel thorns digging into his blood-smeared brow, nor the crimson streams from a chin whose beard has been ripped from the skin.

Nails kill people, as the very life breath is drowned out of their filling lungs while they hang suspended between the sky and the earth, life and death, all eternity.

Sin kills people…

…even one that remained sinless

A broken heart kills people.

And His blood, like the blood of Abel’s calls out from the ground.  Yet, His blood has a different message.  It is not condemnation for a fallen people, but rather a message of hope.  It is not innocence lost, but innocence restored.  It is the offer of redemption for all who respond.  It’s message is clear.

His blood saves people.