46
It's the forty-sixth day of the Omer! Shavuos is nigh!

"One day as Father and I were returning from our walk we found the Grote Markt cordoned off by a double ring of police and soldiers. A truck was parked in front of the fish mart; into the back were climbing men, women, and children, all wearing the yellow star. There was no reason we could see why this particular place at this particular time had been chosen. 'Father! Those poor people!' I cried. The police line opened, the truck moved through. We watched till it turned the corner. 'Those poor people,' Father echoed. But to my surprise I saw that he was looking at the soldiers now forming into ranks to march away. 'I pity the poor Germans, Corrie. They have touched the apple of God's eye.'"
-Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place

Dr. Wong points to a picture of Adolf Hitler: "It's my brother Adolf! Yes, he went wrong and did evil. But he's my brother."


I 've been thinking about the Holocaust. Killing Germans and cutting off their supplies only eradicated a symptom of the disease that plagues the world. It sure didn't cure the disease. Defeating the Nazis was like cutting the biggest and most prominent tumor from a body riddled with cancer, but leaving hundreds of smaller tumors entact lurking under surface, still in the process of killing their struggling host. It reminds me of what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote:
"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

Unspeakable thousands of children are slain every year in North America through abortions. How can those of us with a conscience and belief in a Creator who makes every human creature unique and special convince our neighbors of the evil of this mass legalized murder? By shooting "liberal" politicians or abortion doctors or bombing abortion clinics? Surely not. That would not cure our national illness. Change must begin in the heart. And the only surgeon that can perform this delicate heart operation is the Spirit of God. We can pray to our Creator, we can be bold in standing against sin, and we can live our lives of examples of Elohim's love. The remainder of the work is in the hands of Elohim.

Hmmm...I'm thinking too of America's mission to Iraq to preach their gospel of democracy and freedom through the medium of helicopters and guns. Their mission cannot truly succeed until the Iraqis themselves want democracy. Change of heart...although in this case it's not so clear whether the change would be good.

Well, I'm going to help my friends build a fence now. Shalom.