The Holocaust Survivor
John 8:12 Later, Jesus talked to the people again. He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never live in darkness. They will have the light that gives life."
It’s easy for us to forget, bumping along through life day by day, what we as human beings are capable of. The depths to which we’re prepared to sink sometimes.
I recently visited the Jewish Holocaust Museum in Sydney. The displays and stories were confronting. But the most compelling part for me was talking with one of the guides, a Jewish woman now in her eighties.
She had a unique perspective on the Jewish Holocaust of World War II, because she was there. She told me what it was like when they arrived at Auschwitz – she, her mother and her sister. They were all in a line. She was sent to the left, her mother and her sister to the right. She never saw them again.
As I looked into her eyes, well, the statistics, terrible as they are, are one thing, but when the reality of what happened is reduced down to that one personal story, it’s like zooming in and you couldn’t help but be moved by that firsthand telling of this terrible atrocity.
Anyhow, I asked her, “Why do you do this? Why do you come to the museum and talk to people like me?”
She answered, simply plainly, “I want people to know. I just want them to know.”
That place was like a mirror reflecting the darkest part of the human soul. It’s great to celebrate human achievement, but I wonder if it isn’t just as important sometimes, to remember the darkness. To see and accept human depravity for what it is. To come to grips with what we’re all capable of.
John 8:12 Later, Jesus talked to the people again. He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never live in darkness. They will have the light that gives life.”
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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