Have you ever wondered what you would have done if you had been a Christian in Germany during Hitler’s regime? Would you have saved innocent Jews from being killed? We would all like to think so.
You see those times and those decisions were not given to us. We live in different times and we have our own unique decisions to make. What are we doing today about millions of babies being killed in their mother’s womb? Do our hearts break when we learn that nearly 2 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade each year? Are we moved to help children whose lives could be saved by one shot? (10 million children die each year of diseases such as malaria and measles.)
These are the weak and the innocent of our times. So, the question is not if you would have saved Jews during Hitler’s time. The questions is, “Who are you helping/saving today? For whom are you standing?”
During World War II the Solomon Rosenberg family was exiled to a work concentration camp where life literally depended on whether or not one could work for long hours each day. The family consisted of two aged parents, as well as Solomon, his wife, and two sons, Jacob and Joshua. Solomon knew that the first to die would be his aged parents since they were unable to work the many required hours. He feared the next to die would be their son Jacob since he was physically handicapped. Each day he would come back to the camp and hurriedly look around to see if Jacob was still there. One day his greatest fear was realized; Jacob was missing. He rushed to his son Joshua who was huddled in a corner crying. “Where is Jacob?” he shouted. “They came and took him,” Joshua said. “Then where is Mama?” he asked Joshua, “She was well enough to work…where is she?” Joshua, clinging to his father, said, “When they came to get Jacob, he was afraid and started crying. Mama told him she would go with him so he wouldn’t be afraid. Mama went with him to the gas chambers, because she did not want him to go alone.”
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 1 John 3:16
