There are several dates that are etched into our memories and without fail when they come around something causes us to stop, reflect, before we go on with life as we know it.
One of those dates is coming up - Nov. 22 - but, I'm going to wait to write on that for another 12 days. I remember that date very well. I remember other dates also...my wife's birthday, my children's and now Grandchildren's birthdays. I remember our Anniversary - not because I'm suppose to do something, but simply because that day changed my life forever.
Perhaps that's the best way to describe these kinds of days...they changed our life forever.
I remember 9/11.
Wait Elliott, it's not 9/11, it's 11/9 right now. Well that's true, but I'm not talking about our country's 9/11, I'm talking about the FIRST 9/11.
As a person who has made numbers of trips to Europe one of the first things you realize is that when you're asked to enter the date, you don't enter as we do it in the U.S. which is day/month/year. In Europe it's always month/day/year. So 9/11 in Europe is November the 9th.
While officially that was yesterday, I wanted to "muse" a bit about the first 9/11...the one in Europe, 75 years ago this weekend.
On Nov. 9, 1938 - exactly 75 years ago this weekend - the Nazis launched a massive assault on Jewish businesses, homes, synagogues, books, music, art, and Jewish people. Adolph Hitler had convinced the German people that the Jewish people among them were Communists, Spies, and the reason for Germany's struggles. His solution was to "rid the German nation of these vermin among us...". His "brown shirt" Nazi followers marched into the streets and began a systematic attack on all things Jewish. They smashed windows of Jewish businesses, and destroyed synagogues and homes - while brutalizing Jewish people - wherever they found them. The actions kept going through the 10th, and so fittingly this is still a part of that tragic anniversary weekend. The "night of the broken glass" as it came to be called comes from the German word, Kristallnacht.
About 100 Jews lost their lives, but 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent on to the newly created prison camps that would become the basis for the German death camps. Over 1000 Synagogues were destroyed all over Germany and Austria, and 7,000 Jewish businesses were either destroyed or damaged.
It is the first 9/11.
As a Christian what do we do with events like this? I think, in my judgment, that the best answer is that we do what our God would do. Grieve, and realize the tragedy of the Sinful nature.
The nature of our human self is full of Sin. We are not above the sin of the Nazi's...we actually share the same nature they had. You can reject that view, but it would be to unwise to do so. Yes, that's true. Remember, I come from a nation that said "blacks do not have souls..." and "it's fine to own slaves...".
No, I may not be a Nazi...and hopefully you are not one either...but do not be deceived, we are capable of the sin that we so easily condemn.
SO...when we begin by describing "those people"...realize that it is only through the Grace of God received that any of us can "die to sin" through the Gospel and enter into the new life of Jesus Christ.
Kristallnacht was the first 9/11...most of us have lived through a second one also.
God grieves...so should we. The creation and the Spirit groan, Paul says (Romans 8)...so do we.
We don't know what to do with events like these...perhaps it is enough that we remember...i.e., choose to never forget, so that we might never repeat them.
Peace
One of those dates is coming up - Nov. 22 - but, I'm going to wait to write on that for another 12 days. I remember that date very well. I remember other dates also...my wife's birthday, my children's and now Grandchildren's birthdays. I remember our Anniversary - not because I'm suppose to do something, but simply because that day changed my life forever.
Perhaps that's the best way to describe these kinds of days...they changed our life forever.
I remember 9/11.
Wait Elliott, it's not 9/11, it's 11/9 right now. Well that's true, but I'm not talking about our country's 9/11, I'm talking about the FIRST 9/11.
As a person who has made numbers of trips to Europe one of the first things you realize is that when you're asked to enter the date, you don't enter as we do it in the U.S. which is day/month/year. In Europe it's always month/day/year. So 9/11 in Europe is November the 9th.
While officially that was yesterday, I wanted to "muse" a bit about the first 9/11...the one in Europe, 75 years ago this weekend.
On Nov. 9, 1938 - exactly 75 years ago this weekend - the Nazis launched a massive assault on Jewish businesses, homes, synagogues, books, music, art, and Jewish people. Adolph Hitler had convinced the German people that the Jewish people among them were Communists, Spies, and the reason for Germany's struggles. His solution was to "rid the German nation of these vermin among us...". His "brown shirt" Nazi followers marched into the streets and began a systematic attack on all things Jewish. They smashed windows of Jewish businesses, and destroyed synagogues and homes - while brutalizing Jewish people - wherever they found them. The actions kept going through the 10th, and so fittingly this is still a part of that tragic anniversary weekend. The "night of the broken glass" as it came to be called comes from the German word, Kristallnacht.
About 100 Jews lost their lives, but 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent on to the newly created prison camps that would become the basis for the German death camps. Over 1000 Synagogues were destroyed all over Germany and Austria, and 7,000 Jewish businesses were either destroyed or damaged.
It is the first 9/11.
As a Christian what do we do with events like this? I think, in my judgment, that the best answer is that we do what our God would do. Grieve, and realize the tragedy of the Sinful nature.
The nature of our human self is full of Sin. We are not above the sin of the Nazi's...we actually share the same nature they had. You can reject that view, but it would be to unwise to do so. Yes, that's true. Remember, I come from a nation that said "blacks do not have souls..." and "it's fine to own slaves...".
No, I may not be a Nazi...and hopefully you are not one either...but do not be deceived, we are capable of the sin that we so easily condemn.
SO...when we begin by describing "those people"...realize that it is only through the Grace of God received that any of us can "die to sin" through the Gospel and enter into the new life of Jesus Christ.
Kristallnacht was the first 9/11...most of us have lived through a second one also.
God grieves...so should we. The creation and the Spirit groan, Paul says (Romans 8)...so do we.
We don't know what to do with events like these...perhaps it is enough that we remember...i.e., choose to never forget, so that we might never repeat them.
Peace
Comments