I took a good opportunity to decompress in TV watching last night – was going to watch the British Bake Off, but a more serious tone drew me into the evening on the couch – I saw color footage that was rarely made during the WW2 time of atrocities and destruction. The color makes it seem more real. The horror is really unfathomable.
Good God – I have to say when people ask “is the world getting worse?” – well it is sad to say that there has always been brokenness, greed and jealousy from the BEGINNING of man – from Adam and Eve to Cain and Abel. Sometimes we have forgotten the worst and most awful times that have already been – and we will see more – but right now we need to find that we are in a golden spot of grace when we have a small dose of peace. And we do complain about things that are awful now and tough (and I am not downplaying our tough times) but in comparison? In watching a particular documentary about the ghettos in the Warsaw Poland area in the time of World War II, I have to say, emotionally, wow, just wow. I also watched the George Stevens color film footage of the news and Hollywood film documentations as they moved from D day to Berlin (these were on HBO). And there are history books (and websites) now so readily available with information – but we forget – and just in this tiny corner, 300,000 Jews were killed from the forced herding and starvation and disease, and eventual genocide of a few types of people, terrible. Just from Warsaw, there were 300,000 killed in 2 months, unfathomable. There was an uprising and one documentary had camera images and negatives smuggled out. It is something to want to document the real truth so that it is not annihilated alongside the people. WOW.
Watching the footage in color brings the stories to reality in a new way – there is record of the war that we rarely see – and in people who felt open to talk – like a woman who was a child and the family had to separate and keep hiding – there were emotions released later that we know now are best not to be suppressed. There was one story of a bracelet of gold and the links one or a few at a time were given out as bartering pieces for bribery to safe passage or to get food or to preserve the life of a child that they were trying to smuggle out. One woman interviewed said that when she was five, she was hidden quietly in a barrel next to her mother working in a sweat shop sewing uniforms, and then later she was smuggled out from the ghetto during one of the days that her father was working on the other side – that is when she was then hidden for years by friends.
I haven’t finished watching the documentary – I know that she was concerned because she was hard to hide being so young and because of her looks. These are the stories that are worth knowing about. Painful history true but both a warning and a knowing of the need for God to intervene. It was from the Ghetto and then there was Gold to use as bribery material, and there was GRACE to get her out and stay alive and have the strength to tell her story. Grave Ghettos, but Gold and Grace gave way to getting out of there.
And Good God… Oh the horror – so much for us to know the horrors of evil and our collective humanness to be caught up in it. Between the devastation, the MILLIONS of lives killed and millions of lives always affected. Lord God – we wonder why such evil plays out this way – and yet Lord, we pray for peace that only You, Lord, can provide… We ask You Lord, let us not see this level of horror again.
Trust me, I know I have little to complain about, sitting in my warmed cushy home, able to eat, take a shower or two in a day, and prosper, in comparison. We have resources and backup plans – we have a society which will set out safety nets. We have hope in hope. I will watch these documentary films and know to complain less, to puzzle that real evil exists then and now – and to try to shine even brighter against the bad. And that SHINE is not from us but from the Lord. – He Shines – we reflect – He is Victourious – we help tell the world that He has overcome the world. He rules – we wait. He will come again – we will be there – whether we are living or sleeping in death – we will see it – and every knee will bow…
Lord Jesus give your people strength, and give us the strength to keep appreciating the good times we have and the hope we share. May we see the God in You give us the Gold in each day – and the Grace to get us Home.
Amen
Paul writing to the Philippians (2:1-18)
Unity Through Humility
Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
The Humbled and Exalted Christ
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Light Bearers
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.
And a link to Isaiah 45 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2045&version=NIV;NKJV
