The Hollowcost

 

The Hollowcost

I didn’t misspell.  It’s a play on words except, in this case, there were no winners. 

“The Holocaust was Nazi Germany's deliberate, organized, state-sponsored persecution and genocide of approximately six million European Jews.”

- a quote taken from the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

     I am no fool.  I do not deny the Horrific that words cannot describe.  My brothers and sisters were gathered and forced to eat poison like unwanted rats.  Oh, I know how they died.  Again, a figure of speech.

     I am reminded of a success story.  King Ahasuerus’ second proclamation allowed the Persian Jews to fight for themselves.  That they did.  Now we have Purim to commemorate the rallying cry against Hamman’s plot.  The one to exterminate in the name of pride because of Mordecai’s unwillingness to bow.  We celebrate that event yearly, but there is no gladness following WWII for the fallen.

     Why the Hollowcost?  Well, did this murderous act eat out the world’s soul?  Did we have to see again Man’s nature if left to its own?  I thought we were better than that.  No, another testimony.  Thousands more have been buried since then. Totalitarian governments take aim at the powerless.  Senseless killing spreads its demonic, leathery wings.  Grasping talons pierce and hold to extinguish breath.  In nature, it is expected.  Amongst humanity, it should never be named.

     I feel for the Jews.  No, I should never say that.  I don’t know what it is like.  To imagine the unimaginable would keep me up at night.  After all, torture is torture.  When it hits kin, their album pictures would only bring tears.

     Judeo-Christian teaching tells us we are all related.  Descended from Mother Eve, red blood runs in everyone’s veins.  Cutting a man and seeing fear in his eyes casts a soul far from brotherhood status.  We create atrocities to see them squirm.  A certain pleasure lies in the back of our brains.  A hand of power given to enslavement wells up in all.  Hitler, after all, was our brother.

     Breathe deeply.  A sigh gives way to relief.  Never again?  A glideslope ridden till the return of Christ?  No, man hates man.  Cain picks up another rock.  Descended from a murderer himself, blood in the field came expectedly.  We focus on the instrument as if to strip it from the hand would solve a universal problem.

     Gold, diamonds?  What could be given to heal Man’s leprous soul?  Contagion runs through his being like black death.  The power of Jesus’ blood should never be underestimated.  Submersion in the crimson tide would have turned Adolf into a choir boy.

     Thank you, Lord.  You give us a way out of inner Hell.  You came for more than glory.  You sought release.  You knew the binding clasp that chewed at our heel.  A Hollowcost, surely.

 

 

 

                                                            

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Church Picture

  The Church Picture 2 Samiuel 6: 20  “ Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself! 21  And David said unto Michal, It was before the  Lord , which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the  Lord , over Israel: therefore will I play before the  Lord . 22  And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour. ” Revelation 4: 10  “ The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive ...
Read more

Infectious Disease

  Infectious Disease      I watch network T.V., the free kind over the airwaves.   It is inundated with self-help medicine commercials.   I think of Sky-ri-zee .   Perhaps this is the concoction for clearer skin.   What wouldn’t an Aaronic priest have given for this special med?   “Got a blemish?   Come closer, son.   Looks like the onset of leprosy.   Go away.   Two pills in the mouth and come back in seven.”   Much of Leviticus would have to be rewritten.   The red heifer sacrifice could be summed up with a cream.   “Touched a dead body?   Rub this on the contact area.   Go away.   Come back tomorrow.”      But what if pills don’t work?   Adam would have O.D.’d on the blue and reds seeking to forget the fall. Thankfully the neighborhood drug store was not on his corner.   He heard vaguely of a savior to come.   God said it was in his genes.   ...
Read more

God's Successive Revelations

  God’s Successive Revelations Search Me diligently, and I will reveal Myself to you.      Yah, that sound like something God would say.   I understand He revealed the Trinity to us.   I plead ignorance in Church history.   Some theologians, perhaps 400 A.D. came upon this gem that we hold true today.   The idea of the rapture is new on the Church radar.   Late 1800’s?      What if God revealed His truth to His people in time?   Surely, Solomon was the wisest man in his day, but did he know about Pentecost?   Daniel, the far seer, was only shown glimpses.   What did he know of Peter and miracles in the temple?   A certain king discovered God’s truth again and that made for a reformation, but what did he know of the beast standing in the sea?   God gives insight in His time.      I have trained seven children.   As young  children, I did not flood them with...
Read more