What is so special about a brand-new year? A new year is relevant regardless of where people live and the calendars that they follow, because something new always brings hope.

Most of the world celebrates the beginning of a new year at midnight on December 31, because at that time on the Gregorian calendar, the most widely recognized calendar in the world, we welcome January 1 of a new year.

The Julian calendar (introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC) was popular until the Gregorian calendar (presented by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582) superseded it. Both the Julian and Gregorian calendars differentiate the years BC, before Christ, and the years AD, Anno Domini, Latin for in the year of the Lord. Although errors were made and some believe that days were lost with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, both calendars emphasize the greatest events that the world has ever known, beginning with the birth of Jesus Christ.

The Bible is a reliable record of history. A biblical year is five days shorter than a Gregorian year due to the Bible’s reliance on the moon to demarcate months. The Bible relies on the sun for seasons, as does the Gregorian year, but new days begin at sunset. The lunisolar Hebrew calendar ensures greater accuracy for God’s feast days than does the solar Gregorian calendar. It is why there is discrepancy in the dates of the Hebrew Passover and the Christian Easter. Regardless, keeping time is pivotal to celebrating the birth and death of God’s Son.

This division of history based on Jesus’s coming to earth exhibits divine intention, God’s supreme love for His creation and His efforts to bring those made in His image back to Him. Originating with Father Abraham and the Hebrews, down through Jacob’s lineage, the Jews repeatedly rejected God, although He constantly called them back to Himself. Even the birth of their Messiah, of the line of David, failed. The Jews are a stubborn and selfish people, who despite their giftedness and chosen status, will not see heaven unless they accept Jesus as Lord.

The Old Testament records the numerous times that God called the Israelites back to Himself, through faithful kings, prophets, and commoners. These men and women were precursors to God’s visiting earth Himself in a final attempt to call His prodigal children home. But God is not only calling His wayward chosen home, God calls everyone home: Jews and Gentiles alike.

The miracle of miracles happened when Jesus rose again and offered eternal life to all who believe. Before that, Jesus’s birth, preceded by the most faithful of people—Zechariah, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Mary, and Joseph—was foretold and greatly anticipated. How awesome was the night of Christ’s birth and how sacred and cruel His death, yet essential to everyone’s salvation.

Jesus is the only true hope. And He lives! He lives in the spirits of those who believe in Him, despite the cruelty, darkness, and evil all around. Those who know and love God through Jesus are spiritually kept alive through the Holy Spirit, who provides all that is necessary to battle and survive the hardships that they will endure. Jesus lights the way through their darkness. And God will destroy the evil that tempts and deceives them.

God provides the way to the new heaven and the new earth for those who love Him. He knows those who trust Him. He sustains them as He did the twenty-one Coptic Christian men who were beheaded February 15, 2015, because they would not deny Jesus.

We inhabit a hopeless world, a world where people worship their physical bodies, their abilities, and their money. Today artificial intelligence and the magical is seen as hopeful to more people than is their Savior Jesus. Some who lead the way to eternal earthly life through machines and technology deny God in the hope of becoming eternal gods themselves. They have sold their spirits to false gods and prophets. Jesus, who came to draw the Jews back to God, is every person’s Savior and the only hope of an eternal home of blessings.

This year, instead of worshipping what a new year might provide where and whenever you celebrate it, worship the one true God who is, who provides, and who makes the greatest difference once you know, love, and worship Him—regardless of if you are Jew or Gentile. Jesus, our mediator to God the Father, provides the eternal link between earthly life, death, and the everlasting hope and life to come in the new heaven and the new earth.

Choose Jesus, an equal opportunity and inclusive God. Inclusion in anything of the world is always conditional. Little leeway is made for doubts and questions. Contrary to this, God welcomes your doubts and questions. He is eager for you to learn about Him, because knowing Him will open your spirit to love Him. He knows that once your ears are open to learning, and your eyes are open to spiritually seeing, you will not return to the darkness of worldly inclusion. It is a world that honors and encourages death, the death of the imperfect, the inconvenient, and anyone who doubts or questions.

Choose Jesus and choose life. Once you have made the greatest decision of your life, you can get on with life’s minutia, like ushering in a new year and making resolutions. Because after making the decision for eternity, the rest is all small stuff!