Redemption

Lord thank you for redemption. Even the word feels like a blanket right now. I’m watching the sun peak through the clouds as I’m about to enter the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Redemption.

I don’t think my brain can process what I have seen today. I don’t think our hearts were meant to.

As I stand in front of the picture of these children, starved to death, and their clothing hanging on the wall. I can feel the Lord’s presence next to me. And He is weeping. He is utterly horrified and anguished about what happened to the little children.

As we walk out the door, the tour guide says that the man who caused these horrors died from a stroke while swimming. Justice was never served for his acts. That’s where she is wrong. Oh yes it was. Justice is and will be served by my Father in heaven. Thank you Lord that you are righteously angry about this and you will carry out the Justice that is deserved.

I walk through the women’s barracks. I can barely see it’s so dark. And I feel the chill deep in my own bones. If I am this cold standing here in hat, scarf, jacket and boots, how did these women with only a thin blanket on a slab of wood? Lord, only you could be the blanket they needed.

It would be easy to walk through the camp and think the evil out there, in those men, is what caused this. But the truth is, I have the same capacity in my own heart. The sin in me is the same that was in them. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In Gods eyes, we all deserve the same punishment. I owe a debt for my sin. Thank you for Jesus.

Redemption - “The action of gaining or regaining possession of something in exchange for payment or clearing of debt.” Lord I thank you that you paid the debt. You bought us back from sin. You are redeeming the world and these events. That’s where I find my hope. Otherwise I would walk away from this tour heavy and hopeless. How can you see something so horrific and not hope in something? I hope in Someone. My Redeemer lives. He has conquered death and sin. These camps don’t have the last word, because He has won the final war! The battle is over. The camp is liberated. We are prisoners set free. A new king is reigning!

Romans 3:23-26

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

This wasn’t the birthday experience I had expected or planned. But I’m leaving thankful for life, and every breath in my lungs I get to celebrate today. I want to say I love you, because I’m reminded that’s all that matters.